Don, the batting is from a fabric store(JoAnn’s) and was off of a roll which was 4 feet wide,but the material is folded over, so it is 8 feet wide, so there can be a nice continuous run. It is actually probably only 1/2 inch thick when relaxed, and is somewhat transparent. I paint my tabletop white, and use white foam to make hills. In my experience, the thicker foam leads to more problems.
Before I roll this batting out, I lay down all my track and houses, do my wiring and lights and hills, run the trains and make sure it all looks good and works. Then I use a camera(used my phone this year) to photograph what I have, since I may forget how things were placed. I lift up all the track in 3-6’ sections(which I mark), and remove everything but the wiring.
I roll out the batting, and put everything back. I can feel and look thru the batting to find my wiring(including the ceramic building lights), and I use scissors to cut a slot to feed wiring thru where necessary. I lay down the thin foam as I put down the track, and then slip in my extra ties.
Detail was perfect - thanks Butch. BTW, do you have road too? I was thinking of making some simple roads from my kids’ construction paper. Figured the batting/blanket would need to be cut around it, but then also thought that if it was cut the edges would be pushed up from the weight of the buildings. I’ll give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes.
I just painted the roads onto the white. Then, as you said, cut the batting. I do not see that the batting is pushed up. I have a city with an Industrial Rail trolley going into it, so I actually have some “loose pieces” of batting that make up a city block surrounded by road. The weight of the buildings does not make the edges curl up.
An issue I do have to deal with is that I glue a thumbtack on the bottom of each tree or person to go thru the batting into the plywood.