Is Homasote available in the UK ?

[kesreksr]

Hello.
I've spent Good Friday morning looking at model railway websites that were not about P4 or British prototypes.
I was side tracked even more when I started reading about Homasote. This is a board made in the USA from recycled paper. It also seems that it can attract moisture but is resistant to rain, ice and snow.
Modellers in America use Homasote under their tracks instead of cork or foam.
Has anyone reading this forum used Homasote and is it available in Britain ?
Thank for reading this.
Mario.

[JFS]

The Wiki tells us that this Homasote stuff is what we know as cellulose fibre board (I think it is a bit a of a US thing to always refer to things by brand name: my wife still gets me to "Hoover" - using the Dyson of course!)

This stuff used to be available very widely in the UK but I have not seen it for ages and it might have been superseded by other materials, but over here, I think Sundeala would be the best known brand and I think it is still available.

I once has a go at using this stuff as the baseboard material for a 7mm layout - all was well for the first few weeks then it just swelled / twisted / sagged all over the shop. I understand that in the US they tend to use it as the top layer over chipboard - which might be good for permanent layouts in centrally heated heated rooms but might be challenge from a portability viewpoint and certainly not to be carried to / in a van on a cold damp day!

Hope that helps.

Howard.

[Will L]

This stuff used to be available very widely in the UK but I have not seen it for ages and it might have been superseded by other materials, but over here, I think Sundeala would be the best known brand and I think it is still available.

Sundeala, what Cyril Freezer always used to recommend for baseboard construction. That was in the 60's.

Will

[DougN]

It is interesting that we get nether here in Australia, We do get a board product which is similar. It is Canite which I have not seen for a while but is used as pin boards. It is made from sugar cane waste with a white painted side. People don't use it because it did droop between supports even at 300mm centres which when making an exhibition layout caused the weught to rise excessively.

[Will L]

It is interesting that we get nether here in Australia, We do get a board product which is similar. It is Canite which I have not seen for a while but is used as pin boards. It is made from sugar cane waste with a white painted side. People don't use it because it did droop between supports even at 300mm centres which when making an exhibition layout caused the weught to rise excessively.

To be fair, this was true of most fibreboards here too, Sundeala was supposed to be the exception.

Will