PECO switch motors

if you’reing foam for a layout surface, and you have a hole cut for one of these, and the motor buried; is it ok if the bare part of one of the wires that’s soldered on, touches the foam?

That shouldn’t be a problem. The foam is electrically a non-conductor. In the future, though, you might want to make the holes big enough to allow some airflow around the coils. In normal use, cooling shouldn’t be an issue, but it never hurts to have some ventilation around your switch machines.