foam .. pro's and con's


Jim I wouldn't recommend gluing track to foam , I would do like I did and have risers with wood roadbed on the risers. I have glued track to foam and although it does work especially with something like nomorenails or a adhesive that is foam friendly. I often found the problem with foam and rail is with the turnouts although I use tortoise switch machines. With my present layout I'm finding I can do much of my scenery with plaster cloth on weaved contours or bunched paper. I have lots of foamboard and will use it all up only because I have it.
 
I've used 2-in foam alone on shelf brackets and now 1-in laminated to hollow core doors. I use cheap caulk to adhere n-scale or HO cork roadbed to the foam and then track (not turnouts) to the cork. I've tacked down track to/thru the cork with just Atlas track nails if I think I'll rearrange track. I use the caulk sparingly and have had no trouble pulling up caulked track or roadbed for reuse.

I've temporarily used track nails to hold track directly to foam while test running track arrangements and it hasn't moved for periods of several months.
 
I've used foam as a base on my first "trial" layout. It was light, but two things I did not like -
1. if you cut it with saw - it would create lots of small chips that get static and hard to clean and get rid of
2. if you cut it with hot wire - it does not smell well at all, so if you work inside of a house with other people that might be a problem

I was also concerned if it can resist to flame in case I have a short or something else bad happens.

Next time I decided to go with plywood & cork for base. I may still use foam for some scenery work in the future.


Slava
 
I'm going to build a layout in a 12x16 shed that has metal siding over a 2x4 stud frame work. At first I was not going to insulate the shed, but I have now changed my mind and decided to apply foam-board insulation in between all of the studding.

While at it I thought why not just use some of the same foam-board insulation sheeting as a sub-roadbed for the shelf type round-the-wall layout.?

So I came back to all discussions of such type constructions to review them again before making any decisions.
So far I'm not sold totally on just foam as a sub-roadbed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top