Home Racing World

Ready to paint my new table tomorrow. What options are there for covering the table with some type of sound suppressing material before laying down track. I plan on using the Carrera anchor tabs to screw the track to the table. What have folks used other than just painting the ply?

Thanks,

Bruce

my whole roadcoarse table is covered with a layer of thin carpet so thin you wouldn't want it on an actual floor :lol: Its a tan colour an looks like sandy dirt and seems to do a good job of sound deadening

Bruce,
You know that "if you go wood you never go back".
Get a router and play. Draw a track you would like, make the turns tight or wide. Lay it out on paper then the wood and go to it.
You can only ruin a piece of wood.

I used 1/2" Homasote sound deadening board/insulation over 1/2" OSB on 16" centers and indoor outdoor putting green looking carpet glued over that with I/O carpet glue. Train guys have been using the stuff for forever for sound deadening and track beds, easy to put nails and stuff into to hold the track too. I have a Carrera track about the same size and didn't have to use any track retaining clips, it stays put on the carpeting pretty well. If you do use Homasote and the track retaining clips only screw them to the sound board and not through into the plywood or they'll transmit the track noise.

Bluevista, I looked at the homesite sheets and really liked it. If I was doing a permanent set up it would be great. However it seemed a bit fragile to move twice a year. If my current carpet square solution proves to be too noisy I may try it though. Thanks for the suggestion.

Bruce

Planning on building 2 tables and a leaf for the middle , plan on using 1/4 in foam board to use as a border , this way if you come a little hot into a corner you can slide thru it , hopefully not deslotting . Plan on painting it with a gravel/dirt area , and a grass area .

I run Ninco on banquet tables covered with green felt. Staple it in place first and lay down your track. 16' x 5' was $20.

When I built my HO track I knew that there would little room for scenery, so I went for more of a commercial track look and I planned on just painting the top of the table green. The table top is 3/4 inch thick plywood, it looked terrible painted green, so I bought some green foam backed carpet runner. The runner came in 2' by 8' rolls, the pile is a bit heavier than typical outdoor carpet. Hardware and home improvement stores have similar carpet in big rolls, so you can buy any length that you need. As it turned out when I put two rolls side by side the carpet was too big, so I just tacked the extra material to the walls that go around the table. The foam backing does a good job of dampening noise and the carpet on the walls prevents damage to the cars.

Nice track the color coordinated stools add a nice touch

Felt has fibers. Fibers get into braid and can wrap around axles.

Plastic is your friend. :)

You could even go with a piece of MFD under the track to deaden the sound and then if/when you get bored with the plastic track you can get out the router and go to town :banana-dance: :banana-dance: :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber: :D :D

The original post on this thread (many months ago) asked about what to use to deaden plastic track noise. Carpet will do that as will carpet pad under the track. I jumped on the scenery idea to expand the topic. To get realistic coverage on a table gluing down grass model RR style is the best. Put it on a brown surface so any open areas look like dirt (kinda like my lawn in the back yard). It's easy to do, looks great, and doesn't create any problems.

There are many model RR videos to use for guidance.