Known as the “Duct Tape of Model Scenery”, AMI Instant Roadbed is about the easiest, fastest, and most convient way to lay your track and ballast you can find. Over the years I’ve used cork roadbed, foam rubber roadbed, and I’ve even attached the track directly to the layout board. When it comes to laying track, absolutely nothing compares to the ease of installation with AMI Instant Roadbed.

A company called “Friendly Hobby Products” puts out AMI Instant Roadbed, and you can find them on the web at www.AMI-Roadbed.com. This product comes in large rolls and is made of this “gooey” black material that is uncured rubber impregnated with cork. And boy is it ever sticky! There is a separation layer between the strips of material that keeps it from sticking together. This makes it very easy to apply. And of course it comes in different sizes for different scale track.

The hardest part of using AMI Instant Roadbed is setting up the track plan you want. After that, the rest is easy. Once you have an idea of where you want the track to go, you need to mark the path on your layout board. With flex-track, I like to use a stick with two pencils attached at the same width as the roadbed. With this stick I can make nice consistent radius curves, and the pencils mark exactly where to lay the roadbed.

With snap-track, simply put together all your track work on your layout board and draw around the edges of it. Once marked, remove the track and you’re ready to start your roadbed installation.

You can start the roadbed installation most any place on your layout you like. Personally, I like to start way back in the hardest area to reach and work forward. Your choice. All you do is roll the roadbed out keeping it within the lines you drew earlier. The roadbed is very flexible and will conform to any radius curve. You’ll need to do a little cutting to get the correct shape for your turnouts, but it’s easy. I find the roadbed material is much easier to work with when warm. When this material gets cold, it’s a bit stiff so keep it in a warm place until you need it.

As you’re rolling out the roadbed, gently press down to get it to stick. Once you have the track laid down, go back and smooth down the sides to blend it with the ground level. Take your time here to make sure it’s nice and smooth.

Next, you set the track in the center of the roadbed and once again lightly press it down. Don’t press down too hard, as we don’t want the track too deep into the roadbed. You’ll need to get a feeling for how much pressure is enough for this part of the installation. You might want to practice this on an extra section of track as I did.

Now comes the fun part, the ballasting. I’ve tried a number of different ways to attach ballast, and AMI Instant Roadbed is by far the easiest and fastest. All you do is sprinkle on the ballast along the track, press it into the roadbed and then vacuum up the excess. If it isn’t just right, just press more ballast into the roadbed and you’re done! It just doesn’t get any easier than that!

And that’s not all AMI Instant Roadbed can do. You can use it to make all kinds of roads and sidewalks. Press some lines into it, add some dark red paint and you have a brick road. If you press some very fine ballast into the roadbed, you have a dirt road. Add some very fine lines for cracks, paint it with aged concrete or dingy black and you have a paved road. All you need to do is paint some lane divider lines and you’re ready to roll.