Can someone please tell me which foam is the right one for building model railroads? It seems to be a couple of different foams out there. I live in Sweden and I’m trying to get the right one here, that is even more difficult because I don’t know what it’s called. And some ‘so called’ model railroad experts in Sweden don’t even know what I’m talking about.
electrolove,
I believe that you are looking for polystyrene foam insulation board. In the US, it comes in 1" and 2" thicknesses in 4’ x 8’ sheets. Dow Chemical makes these sheets that are blue with the Dow logo (Styrofoam). Another firm makes pink sheets. You should be able to find them at a builders supply.
Mark C.
Stay away from the white beaded foam unless you want to use it as a fill in for mountain scenes.
Ron K.
The pink foam insulation board is made by Owens Corning. Both the blue foam board and the pink foam board can be used.
Steve
Thanks for all helping answers, really cool…
Ok, I’m a little bit closer now, I just emailed a dow company here in Sweden about resellers.
One more question, I can see on the Swedish dow homepage that there are 4 STYROFOAMS called SOLIMATE, PERIMATE, FLOORMATE, ROOFMATE. Can someone sort that out for me?
I have a piece of the pink Owens-Corning waiting to be cut up into mountains, etc. It is labeled “Formula 250” and it has an R value of 10. This stuff is usually used to insulate basement walls on the outside surface. It cuts easily with a handheld jig saw. The stuff mentioned in Model Railroader, PL300 or foamboard Liquid Nails is good for gluing it down. Watch out for other construction glue with organic solvent bases. They can attack the plastic.
Hello, I can help a little as I work for Dow.
You don’t want the Solimate, Perimate or those other mates as they are specialty items for limited purposes.
You are looking for what we call in the States as ‘Styrofoam square edge blue board.’ It comes in various thicknesses (I use 2 inch) and is 4’x8x. I do not have any phone numbers for you, but the web site you are looking at should have a number for a service center. Give them a call and they should be able to get you in touch with a distributor.
good luck,
PS, buy it now as the prices keep going up.
Wow, this is what I love about the internet, to talk with someone that works for dow just when I need it, can it be better then that [:D]
Ok, I will ask them as soon I get a reply on my email for the foam you talked about.
Thank you very much RoyalOaker
Regardless of what the brand name is, its the physical characteristics that matter. What you want is extruded polystyrene foam It can be found in blue, pink, white, green and tan, depending on the source and application. What you would prefer to avoid is expanded polystyrene foam, aka “white bead”, aka beer cooler foam. To get an idea of what the extruded looks like, go to a florist shop, or even better, a place that does silk flowers. The green foam that they stick silk flowers into is usually extruded foam.
Extruded foam is stronger than expanded, and it generally isn’t quite as messy to work with. Which means its merely very messy rather than horribly messy. [:p] Specialty extruded foams are used for lots of purposes, but the common form is quite adequate for model railroading. If you know anybody in the civil engineering or commercial construction, they may be able to hook you up with some leftovers.
Looks like all the advice you will ever need on the subject is at hand.
All I can add is that my layout was constructed using dozens of these 4 ft x 8 ft sheets, with thicknesses up to 3 inches. It is easy to work with and landscapes real well. The only difficulty I encountered was the adhesives. I tried virtually everything until settling on something that was so simple: caulk. Yes, just plain window caulk with a gun.
The adhesives were very expensive and with the size of my rather large layout, I could see that 100’s of dollars could get swallowed up real easily. Liquid nails worked too - but again, costly. I recommend you try the caulk - try it. You can always go to something else if it doesn’t suit you. That’s the beauty of building a layout - it is YOURS and you can do with it as you please.
Good luck.
Siberianmo, good to know. I’m just getting to the foam stage. Just window caulk? How much? Is there any odor?
The only pink extruded that I can see at Home Depot in 4X8 sheets at 2" thickness is offset for interlocking. that is, the sheet is two 1" sheets glued together offset.
Is this what you guys have found?
I glue my foam to the wood with yellow glue. Cheaper and stronger than Liquid Nails.
Caulk is good to build up landforms by gluing foam pieces together, and I use it for all my roadbed and track. No, it doesn;t smell - you use LATEX caulk, not silicon. It’s tacky fromt he start, and dries quickly, but it’s not liek contact cement that forms an instant bond. There was an article on this in MR about a year or so agao, I was kind of skeptcal too but decided to give it a try and wow, I will NEVER use anything else again. It goes WAY too easy. And one tube of caulk has done over 40 feet of track AND roadbed, and still has some left. You spread it THIN. i use the cheapest one I could find at Home Depot, and this one even dried clear - so you can tell when it’s set up. It comes out white, an then dries clear. I’ve even had to pull up some track and relay it. In once spot I had fastened down the turnouts of a crossover and forgot to insulate the jont between them. The other side, I removed two turnouts and put in a new section of roadbed and a piece of flex track because I changed my mind. In both cases it was easy to lift up the track with no damage, and fit in the replacement. For the two turnouts I removed, I also had to remove the Tortoises I put in using the top down method - see my web page, or the Nor-Cal Freemo group’s site, which is where I got the idea. A couple of scraps of foam, with caulk, went in the holes to fill them up, and the new track laid right on top.
–Randy
Weldbond white glue works great at gluing foam together for making mountains and such. If building tunnel walls, 1" bead board works better as you can score it every inch or so to get relief for tunnel turns. Liquid Nails, or NoMoreNails works great to seat this beaded foam onto the wooden surfaces, and it work great for levelling purposes as it is much thicker than regular white glue.
Trevor
An old model railroader gave me a tip on gluing foam a few weeks ago. He said he uses a glue gun. I tried it and it also works a charm. I use the smallest glue sticks available, about 1/2" in diameter, and buy them in bags. You only need a couple of dots here and there. I use a low temp gun for this. It is fast.
what if you cant find the pink or blue but only white foam, other than messy will it work just as good?? or do i need to find blue or pink foam
For Northern Blues:
I used DAP Acryljic Latex Caulk Plus Silicone. Apply it generously - it works. No odors and cleans up nicely with soap and water.
You will spend more money than you need on interlocking sheets - try to find the “plain” ones. Ask if they stock or will order for you 4 x 8 sheets in varying thicknesses. Of course this all depends on what you are plannng for your pike. As I indicated, I used dozens of these sheets (pink) ranging in thicknesses up to 3 inches…
If you have a Lowes hardware store near you, they too stock these materials. Don’t be concerned about some of it being blue in color - just a different manufacturer. Go for the standard building grade stuff and you will be fine.
Good luck.
I have found a foam that I think will work. Look at this url and tell me what you think. It’s Swedish but maybe someone can figure it out.
If “extruderad polystyrencellplast” means what it looks like, “extruded polystrene plastic”, then yes, that is the stuff you are looking for.
–Randy
Yes that is exactly what it means 
Thanks a lot…