I am building my first train table and could use a little advice. I have a track plan and know that I am going with a 4x8 HO table, I will be using 1x4’s set at 16” for the frame. I would like to keep the table as light as possible, but strong, not to stand on strong, but so when I pick it up it does not twist and break the scenery. My plan will have a lake in it, so I know that I will be using a sheet of foam, maybe 1”?
So will 1” foam over a sheet of upside paneling work? The only reason I was thinking of using the sheet of wood, is so that when I cut the foam for the lake I have something there to apply the foe water to. Or is there a better way to do a lake?
That should work. You don’t want to make it toy-like, unless that is really your goal, by gouging too far and just making a weird looking puddle. You will want some contours and a shallow dip, whose bottom you can paint to simulate depths. So, you can use a wire brush, say, to carefully scrape out a shallow depression with a wandering shoreline…no circles!!! Then, sand it reasonably smooth, and then fill it with just a light covering of plaster of Paris. All you want is a paintable surface that will act as a leveled surface over which you will pour two or more shallow coverings of either gloss medium or Envirotex or a two part finish quality epoxy. If you don’t level the ‘bottom’ with something relatively inexpensive, such as plaster or drywall mud, you will have to pour more of the much more costly epoxy.
However, you don’t have to add the level plaster layer…you can paint the bottom foam and just add several thin pours of the medium you are going to use. It is really the epoxy, and not so much the gloss medium, that is costly.
Let each successive pour cure fully, at least 24 hours in humidity near 60% or less, before you pour the next top layer.
It’s 2-inch foam on top of a frame made of 1x4’s on the outside, with 1x3’s inside:
The 1x3s are aligned with the bottom of the 1x4s, so the foam sits down inside the outer frame for protection of the edges. I did not use plywood. The 2-inch foam itself is stiff enough. The frame is supported on 2x3 legs:
I used triangular plywood gussets to support the legs and keep them square to the frame. There are some pieces of diagonal cross-bracing, too, to keep the frame square. I put the whole thing on casters and it rolls around a carpeted floor easily.
Go with 2 inch foam board. It gives you more depth to form drainage ditches, streams and such. The board is strong enough to hold up the trains and the scenery all by itself. I put a sheet of plywood under the foamboard because foamboard won’t hold fasteners. The plywood gives something to secure under table switch machines, power strips, wire bundle hangers, power supplies for Tortoise’s and structural lighting, and other stuff. It also stiffens the benchwork.
Have you thought about running a view block down the center of the table, dividing it into two separate scenes? If you go that way, think about the location of the lake. You want it on one side of the viewblock, not cut in two.
