Here are a few pics of my layout built without using ANY wood. In the first pic I have the main portion of the layout. It is built with a sandwitch of 2" and 1 1/2" foam insulation. And if you look closely, there are no legs. it is all hung from the ceiling with rope. The second and third photos show the underside of my yard area. Its about one foot wide, and 6 feet long. Its is made of 1 1/2" foam for the base. I attached it to the walls using 8" angles of foam hot glued to the wall and base. Both of these methods result in a very light weight layout that can stand up to any "normal" situations. It should support my cat if she were to jump up on it ( she never has though) .......Mike
Never say never Mike. We have a bridge on my club layout that we call "catspaw bridge." It seems as though one of the founding members was on vacation and this module was in his garage next to the window. Well seems as though the cat used the bridge as a leaping post to get to the window. He got a REALLY big surprise when he got back from Hawaii. On to another topic. There is a club here in my area that builds their modules with no wood either. They use the aluminum that you would find in modern office/business construstion. They just simply drill a hole and use pop rivets wherever they need to join pieces together. Seems simple enough but I am sure there is a high cost in this too. Great job! You should show us more.
Neat idea! There's still something wonderful about the scent of fresh cut wood and firing up the table saw though. I have seen a trend for alternative methods, such as pvc piping for light weight, adjustability, etc
in the early 90's,the nmra convention was in cols. and a company called polyterrain had a HOn3 4x8 demo layout,promoting their products,completely made from 1 inch blue foamboard,including the legs. very sturdy,very light.
Very interesting and timely. My expansion will have two "lift out" areas including one that is 18" deep by 10' long. I've been thinking along the lines of 2" foam with a wood frame. Hmmmm. Thread to follow. Thanks for sharing!
I think your idea is an excellent one. I've toyed with the idea for years and now might go and implement it on my new HO layout. And I must mention the layout looks great as well
Thanks guys!!! The overall size of the layout is 3' x8' and I think the backdrop came from Backdrop Warehouse. Its fairly inexpensive , I think it cost me a total of 25 bucks at a trainshow last year. Heres a couple more pics http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/tbthumbs/17/51ca3f7033afc89f827f1ec82d8a79fb_17817.jpg?dl=1298740033
Just FYI, here's a pic from the '70s of a "spine-and-rib" benchwork technique I used to replace most wood with cardboard. Yeah, there was a lot of cutting (my old Shopsmith), but it gave me a strong, light-weight layout for moving around the country many times. Scott
Nice work, Mike! That fascia piece on the front appears structurally integrated. Do you attach it with a continuous bead of hot glue? If so, it would help turn the whole thing into an L-girder and provide the stability that a sheet of foam on its own does not have (e.g., it keeps it from sagging).
Nope , the fascia is only spot glued to the foam. Really the foam is thick enough at 1 1/2 inches that as long as it is supported every 2 ft or so it will never sag. Look at the main part of the layout. It has a total of 3 1/2 inches of foam and is only suported by 2 small pieces of rope, one at either end......Mike Try this as a test. Take a piece of 1 1/2 inch foam 1 ft wide and 4 ft long. Now try to break it in half with your hands. It will bend very little, and it takes more than a little streingth to break it.....Mike
I have also thought about using all foam and cardboard for a layout. However, I do like the strength of wood. I stay within a size where I can put wheels on the legs to move the layout around to get to all sides. There is MR Book titled "N Scale Model Railroad That grows" by Kent Wood and Ric LaBan. It is made from all foam and cardboard. And I have thought about building it but on a wood frame :thumbs_up:instead of foam. See ya Ron
