Foam Board table.......Help??

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rem37411

rem37411

Lead Caboose Polisher
Hi, I am a train lover from way back when. I have always wanted to build a large (in my opinion) layout. I am doing an N scale layout in a 10x14 room with the entire room dedicated to this. I am currently building my tables and am going to cover them with 2" thick foam board to "Carve" my scenery out of. I have very little in the way of guidance for this and was wondering what "Rules" if any I should follow. I plan on using atlas code 80 on foam roadbed. Any thoughts on how this will affect noise? I am looking for any and all tips. It seems to me that I will have a lot of flat ground to shape. I plan on doing mostly rolling type hills with one area that has mountain type area with rocks. Help?

Thanks so much in advance!

Ron
 
that is a good set of videos. (if only he talked less :rolleyes:)

not much to ad. cut to remove foam and make recesses, ad and glue to create hills. i really enjoyed this process.
good luck and post some pictures of your progress :)
 


The latest issue of Model Railroader (January 2010) has an article on this topic. It should still be on newsstands everywhere.

- Jeff
 
Thanks for the tips on the videos! the guy obviously has some great ideas. I am actually more concerned with using the 2" foam as the bed for the entire layout and applying my foam trackbed over the top of it. In the videos it appears that he has his track attached directly to the plywood and is using the foam to build up his scenery. I want to be able to build up and down, carve out ditches or creeks or a river under ground zero. Will the foam on foam be too much noise? I am enjoying reading post after post after post on this great forum! You guys are a wealth of knowledge!

Ron
 
That's exactly what I'm doing. I built solid benchwork from DRY wood that I've had for over 10 years. So I know it won't warp. The ramp in the attached pic is built from plywood.

I then glued the 2" foam directly to the benchwork. I also intend to use the foam for have valleys, creeks, hills etc that the train will go through. Well, it won't go through the creeks, I'll have bridges over those.:D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
cncproadwarrior said:
That's exactly what I'm doing. I built solid benchwork from DRY wood that I've had for over 10 years. So I know it won't warp. The ramp in the attached pic is built from plywood.

I then glued the 2" foam directly to the benchwork. I also intend to use the foam for have valleys, creeks, hills etc that the train will go through. Well, it won't go through the creeks, I'll have bridges over those.:D
Click to expand...


So have you had any issues with noise? I love hearing the trains clack over the joints but don't want the loud "plastic" sound. I love the pic u attached!

Ron
 
I've glued N-scale and HO track to both cork roadbed and Woodland Scenics foam (rubber) roadbed on extruded foam and had no problems with noise.
 
Awesome! Ok, I am almost finished with the tables. I will post a pic if I can figure out how and let you guys see how my little layout goes along the way! THank you so much for the tips!

Ron:cool:
 
my layout is foam on top of plywood. i'm using cork roadbed on it as well but not through entire mainline. noise is not a problem on corked sections. section that is on plaster (smoothed my graded underpass with that) is more noisy but then its not plastic nor plywood noise , is just accented "whhhhooooshhhhh" sound of wheels rolling over long CWR section. no clickity-clack for me, thank you :D

posting pictures is easy. upload it into picture hosting service of choice, and then either link to it or use the "insert image" button, plug in the url of the pic and it will show up embedded into your post

underpass section without roadbed
DSC_8677-vi.jpg
 


Ok, got my tables done. For the most part, I am sure I will modify along the way...I LOVE CHANGE!! Gonna try and load the pic up. Looking at the pic it is 10 feet from left to right, the table in the middle is 9.5 feet long and 4 feet wide.. The piece right under me is about 4 feet waide beside me and tapers down to 17 inches. I think I have plenty of room to work.
 
Basic layout

Well, I guess I probably started this thread in the wrong category, but I will stick with it anyway. Ok, I got my base coat of foam down and a rough layout. I have included the picture. I have decided that my layout will be centered around a coal mine. The coal mine will be on the table in the foreground. I am going to include a grade starting about halfway along the far wall on the outside track. The grade will run for a total of 16' which, with my math calculates out to a total of 4" of rise from the other end to this end. I haven't decided on the main table layout yet other than having the main line run through it as you can see. I will have a town there also. Any suggestions?
 
pretty good. don't settle on anything untill you fully satisfied.
and extra good job on that long slope. making it so precise sure takes lot of patience.
 
I took 2' pieces of foam about two inches wide and measured out the grade from one end to the other then drew a line and used a one way saw and slowly cut out the grade, it wound up giving me two pieces I could use, one for the upgrade and one for the down grade. I think it worked out nice. I don't like the tight turns on the closest table but I want to put an industry on this end. Not real sure what I can do about that, I need to loosen them up.
 
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