I'm pleased this was mentioned, as this pre-ballasted underlay caught my attention some time ago.
I'd be very interested to see comments from anyone who has actually used the N Gauge version of this underlay.
It has an obvious appeal but, as pointed out, it is expensive.
It is nearly triple the price of plain Peco foam underlay and actually costs more than the Peco track itself, depending where you buy your track - so a substantial budget item for larger layouts.
In this case, the pre-made sections for
points are to fit Mini-Trix items only.
Mini-Trix track and points are not very common in UK and, for the underlay sections, On Tracks states "We can now obtain", which suggests these particular sections are not a stock item. Unfortunately their link to the full list isn't working so we can't see them or check the prices either.
What this amounts to is that unless you happen to use Mini-Trix points, you must make the points section underlays yourself. This might not bother you, but it might, and one needs to be clearly aware of it before committing to the system.
I have used similar underlays and, in practice, some problems do arise.
While it isn't difficult to mate the track with the underlay, the fact that the base is foam makes it difficult to ensure even, accurate track levels and, apart from appearance, this is critical for smooth running in N Gauge. Not impossible to achieve, but one should be aware that it isn't plain sailing either.
The other most obvious problem arises as soon as you have more than a single track. What to do with the gap between tracks? You buy their UNballasted foam sheets plus loose scatter ballast. You must cut the infill accurately yourself, lay it neatly in the gaps and then hand ballast it. Again, not impossible, but not easy to do neatly and is now starting to move away from the quick convenience factor - and adding more expense.
This is one of those choices that is very much a balancing act between time, effort, skill, effectiveness and expense - a very individual decision to make. Again, I'd be VERY interested in N gauge users' practical experiences with this particular product, because it does have some obvious attractions in spite of the not so obvious snags and substantial extra expense.
One extra quesion for anyone who has actually used it - how well does the foam base maintain its grip on the the pre-glued ballast particles? Does it tend to flake off under handling?