Model Railroad Scenery from Start to Finish: Installing Extruded Foam Board

[@therailfan8947]

I’m hoping to start my layout scenery soon, so this series will really help! Thanks Mr. Joe!

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

Oh nice! I hope you enjoy building your layout. There will be much more content in the future. Thank you for watching!

[@Chessie1985]

Awesome tip Joe!!!

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

Thank you Jeff!

[@Chessie1985]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest You're welcome!!

[@simonetaormina7080]

Started with the foam board years ago when it was dirt cheap, everyone I knew in the hobby told me I was nuts and looked at like I had 3 heads, not it’s the norm. Many videos are made were people actually make money off it. I’m sure it’s gonna be beautiful, good luck. Oh I don’t agree with liquid nails. Elmers is fine.

[@tomasanderson6815]

regular white glue works fine for me too , been using it for years . : )

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

It’s good stuff. No issues either.

[@karolkoepp5741]

Can EPS (expanded polystyrene) be used instead of the extruded type of board?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

You can, but unfortunately I don’t recommend it. I know it’s cheaper and looks more appealing. The reason I don’t recommend it is because it falls apart very easily. I have used it in the past. If you attempt to carve it with a utility knife or a rasp, it just breaks off into small little beads. You would need to use a hot wire knife to carve the foam you are referring to get a clean cuts. The pink one in the video is much more sturdy and easy to use. You can use and type of knife to cut and carve it including a hot wire knife. If you’d like, you can buy a sample piece of each type from a home improvement store. The pieces usually come in 2’x2’ squares. You can then experiment with both and see which better fits your needs.

[@karolkoepp5741]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest Thank you. Looks like I need to take a trip to Home Depot. The on-line description on their website isn't clear to me and I can't tell if it is expanded or extruded. As you can tell, I am a newbie when it comes to using foam. I have an 8'x8' layout on 3 plastic top tables. I am expanding that to an 8' x 19' layout with the hope of running 5 engineers. Definitely need sound deadening. May be in over my head but that's the fun of this hobby. Thanks again for your help.

[@karolkoepp5741]

Thanks. Do you recommend 1 or 2" thickness to cover the baseboard?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

@@karolkoepp5741 it agree, it’s difficult to decipher what kind of foam it is online. Once you see the foam in person, you’ll totally see the difference and see the quality. The EPS is usually white and the extruded foam is pink or blue. Oh and one other thing, don’t buy the foam board with the foil on it. You will clearly see a layer of foil on the outside of the foam board. You’ll have a hard time trying to remove it. Sounds like you have your hands full with that layout. Sounds like it’s going to be great. As for the thickness, it depends on what you want to do with it. What are you modeling? Are you modeling the Midwest where it’s generally flat except for small ditches and small variances in land topography? Is it back east near New York and Pennsylvania? Are you modeling the Southwest where there canyons and gullies? If you are building in the mid west you can with 1”. If you are modeling and area with far more land features I would recommend 2” so that you can carve down towards the table to top to create different land features. Then I again you can put down one layer of 1” foam board and then used risers to build up the track level higher so you have can use plaster cloth to build up the terrain. Let me know if you have an other questions. I’m always happy to help!

[@rgs455atw]

I am interested in how you attach switch machines like a Tortoise switch machine under a switch.

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

You would still attach the switch motor to the plywood underneath the layout, although you would have to lengthen the wire the goes from the motor to the switch. Use a longer and thicker wire to do so. A thicker wire would help it be more sturdy

[@andrewkarl9371]

Where does one find "newspaper"? Would brown paper be a good alternative?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

I get it from Gas Stations. I buy it mostly to start fires at my home for the winter. Brown paper is perfectly fine for this. Whatever you can use to trace the outline of the land feature.

[@NYandAtlantic]

Will atlas snap track have any issues with humidity

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

It’s not necessarily the track itself that has issues with humidity. It’s the layout construction (Bench work). The bench work can swell/ warp and change its form with humidity that can later cause track buckling and other track work problems. Extreme heat and cold changes can also cause track work issues. The reason snap track can have more issues instead of long runs of flex track is that snap track has many joints that can be affected by the buckling. The best way to try to overcome that is to have a sheet of extruded foam board over top of your finished bench work. The foam board will be somewhat of a barrier between the bench work and the track and roadbed. Really these issues only really arise with extreme circumstances of humidity, heat and cold temperatures. You can help fight the track buckling by leaving small gaps in track work while soldering. I mean “small” gaps, about the width of a piece of paper. That would allow for track expansion and warping.

[@NYandAtlantic]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest I left a little bit used lag bolts but not fully tightened

[@NYandAtlantic]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest I am not sure if era yet still trying to find NY and Atlantic diesel locomotive even tried e bay

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

@@NYandAtlantic I honestly think you’ll be okay. I’m not trying to make you too concerned about using what you have. I just wanted to tell you about it just in case you’re having derailments and you can’t figure out why. It happened to me once before.

[@NYandAtlantic]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest I have 1” foam board on top of bench work

[@alabamarailfanningproducti139]

what kind of foam is this?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

You can get it from Lowes or Home Depot. It’s called extruded insulation foam board. It’s cheaper at Home Depot.

[@alabamarailfanningproducti139]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest Ok thanks! i wrote that comment and then i realised i already asked that. so i was like oops and then edited it. my bad

[@alabamarailfanningproducti139]

@Model Railroading The Southwest Also, Can you get it online or in store?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

@@alabamarailfanningproducti139 I don’t know but I comes in 4’x8’ sheets and 2’x2’ squares. So it would be expensive to ship

[@simonetaormina7080]

Use masking tape on your seams no need to fill with anything scenery will cover the tape no problem

[@jerryfbarnes5228]

Why do use foam board? It is too noise. I would use risers and homosot.

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

My least favorite part of building a layout is the bench work. It’s not because of a lack of skill set; I’m just impatient and I want to get trains running. Building risers on an open grid layout and having to cut all the homasote for the roadbed is time consuming. I thought about doing an open grid layout, although I did not want to go through the trouble. Using a foam base and using foam to build scenery has always been a tradition of mine for building layouts. I enjoy using it. As for the noise, there is very little noise while running trains. I actually enjoy the sound the trains make while going over the track. I have seen layouts that use homasote. There is a difference in sound and sound volume from the trains running, but the noise doesn’t bother me.

[@svlnj]

Probably a really basic/dumb question: are you wearing gloves because the foam is irritating to the skin or no?

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

The foam is not irritating whatsoever. I sort of got into the habit of wearing gloves for almost everything I do. I work in the medical field and it sort of formed into a habit to wear gloves while doing stuff. It may be little strange but it’s what I do haha. You may see in other video where I wear gloves while handling models, it’s because I do not like getting fingerprints on my models.

[@svlnj]

@@modelrailroadingthesouthwest thank you! I’m going to attempt to use that foam for something this winter.

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

@@svlnj it’s great stuff. You’ll enjoy working with it.

[@NYandAtlantic]

Pink foam fairly easy to use

[@NYandAtlantic]

Thanks for this video why retaining wall just curious

[@simonetaormina7080]

Why not use the foam board itself to make your raisers.. that Woodland scene stuff is way to expensive. And really no need. That’s the whole idea behind using foam, also with those raisers all those gaps need to be filled as well.

[@modelrailroadingthesouthwest]

I did not want to go through the trouble of cutting all the foam board for the risers. I also just wanted to try out the risers since I saw a few other modelers using risers.