I am redoing my entire layout. I will be doing a modular layout but I’m unsure where to start. I’m hiring someone to do the bench work, but the rest is up to me. Should I use foam board on top of the table or is there other alternatives? I would be grateful for any suggestions you all have.
I think you will get a lot of opinions on this.
It is lightweight. Is as self supporting as 1/2" plywood, 16" centers are plenty, but it will break if handled roughly. It can be easily gouged, carved or whatever to give you below track scenery. It can be attached to wood or more foam with cheap latex caulk and cork or foam roadbed can be attached to it the same way.
You say you are making a modular layout. If you plan to move it often, I would suggest at least 1/4" luan under it for protection and support and a facia going all the way around to protect the edges. You can scenic over the edges that abut each other. If you are making it modular for a “possible” move, the facia need not be on abutting faces, just be careful when it is moved.
The excess pieces can be used to create everything from landforms down to piles of dirt. Very little need be wasted.
I have it under my 4’x6’ portable layout and I plan to use it in my around the room layout. I did use 1/2" under my portable, but it is much more than necessary.
Just some thoughts.
Good luck,
Foam board will do nicely. I myself used it but I did use 1/4" plywood as a base to glue the foam board to. Foam board can be found in 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 2" thickness at most Lowe’s stores or what ever you local lumber store is in you area. If not look it up online. just make sure you use the right caulk to glue it down. Foam board is very easy to work with. It cuts easy and save all your scrap you can use it to build contours any where on the layout. One Last note: A hot soldering iron melts foam board. So be careful when laying track.
I’ve successfully used 2-in thick foam with no other framing, etc on steel shelf brackets. I’m now laminating (as an experiment) 0.5-in layers of foam to some hollow core doors that I got for free. I’ve never had any problems with warping, sagging, etc, etc but the foam versus ply versus Homosote debate rages on, here and in other forums…
If you search the forum for “foam”, you’ll see that many posts call out foam as being “noisy” when trains run over it, especially if the foam is laid directly on the benchwork joists with no other support.
The amount of noise your trains make as they run over unsupported foam may or may not bother you. If you have the equipment, I would mock up a test and see what the noise is like in each circumstance and make your own judgment call.
An example from my personal experience: Since I am using existing shelving units, I have a section of foam-over-plywood that adjoins a section of foam-on-open-grid. I did a quick test with some sectional track on cork roadbed, neither of which was permanently laid. I found foam-on-open-grid was noticeably more noisy than the foam-on-plywood. In the end I decided that the sound of the transition between the two methods was irritating to me, and not necessarily the sound of either method by itself. So I took a step back and pulled my open grid benchwork off of the walls, put 1/4" lauan under the foam to deaden that transition sound, then re-attached the benchwork at the new height.