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My tables are finally built and moved to the right location.

Historically I've just painted the plywood and started laying down track, but this time around I'm hoping to put some sound dampening material between the FasTrack and the plywood. The reason for this is that I don't want too much noise - waking up the kids at night just from the "clickety-clack" of running trains isn't good.  

Any suggestions? I'm looking to just totally cover the tables (Five 4x8 tables), then put down a fabric of some sort over the acoustic solution. I need to be able to drill through the material, and screw down track + accessories. I don't want anything thick - even just thin vinyl glued down may be sufficient. 

I've read about various high density foams, cork board, ceiling tiles, and other acoustic tiles.

What do folks recommend? 

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If you have been on the forum for more than a month I am sure you have heard of homasote by now. Check it out it works great. Also because fastrack is hollow on the inside consider putting some sound dampening material inside the hollow space. Also I don't think you are going to get results you want without anything thick  especially since you are using fastrack.

I used 3/8" anti fatigue matting.  Lowes used to sell it, a 30" wide roll sold by the foot.

I cut it into strips with both sides beveled, using my bandsaw.

It made the layout quiet but as soon as I applied ballast it caused the sound to increase.

The matting turned out to be cheaper than cork roadbed.  You could even cover the entire surface of the plywood, fasten it down with spray adhesive.

I used bubble wrap used for insulating ductwork (has metalized film on one side and very heavy duty) on top of 1/4" plywood tables for my Christmas layout this past year.  Covered it all with snow blankets used for Christmas villages.   Never heard any real sound from underneith the tables.   Used both fastrack and tinplate- both were not fastened as this was a temporary layout.   Excellent results.

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