Blue foam or foam blues?

We are all familiar with the 2" blue foam we curently use in layout construction. It is very dense and very sturdy and makes for pretty
solid and lightweight benchwork. My question is what wrong with using the 2" white "beadboard" foam?

Aside from the obvious (less density and somewhat harder to shape), given proper support, more specifically under trackwork, would not white foam work just as well as blue or pink foam?

 

White styrofoam is a lot cheaper than the blue or orange type dense construction foam, but I think the advantage ends there.

I have yet to find a really clean, quick and succesful way to attach anything to the white foam. It works great for scenery stuff like building hills and mountains and hydrocal holds to it very good and certain types of spray paint (water base) won't melt it.

I would use the blue or orange styrofoam exclusively for laying track on if cost is a consideration and use white every where else.
That is what I am doing.

Hot glue works great for holding track down on the dense styrofoam, particularly for Kato Unitrack, and with the heavy density, it absorbs the drum of moving trains.

Try attaching something to the white stuff with a hot glue gun and see what happens.

 

I went to the nearest Home Depot (Sacramento) to check out the foam. All they had was a couple of 2' x 4' sheets of white with foil backing.
My Foster daughter is bringing the lumber for my benchwork next weekend and I had planned on using the blue foam but I guess I will just have to use plywood instead.

[ 10 July 2002, 16:40: Message edited by: Telegrapher ]

 

I noticed that I can't get the Blue foam at my local Home Depot, (they just carry the foil backed stuff) but the next nearest one carrys the blue.

Make a couple of calls and check around, maybe try Lowes or a larger Orchard Supply.

Brian

 

The White stuff shapes horridly and gets beads all over everything.

 

If the white foam was properly supported, what then would be the advantage of the blue/pink foam over the white?

 

sd80mac,
It sounds like you really want to use the white styrofoam.

SUPPORT IS NOT THE PROBLEM WITH THE WHITE STYROFOAM!

So I would suggest that you get a section of whatever type of track you are using and try to attach it to your white styrofom.

If you are happy with the results of the effort, then by all means use white styrofoam.

 

Well said Trainboy!

 

I guess that's what I wanted to hear. I'm hardheaded at times and I guess I was wanting someone to tell me to try it before I actually tried it, you know?

Thanks Gary!

 

sd80mac,

Don't totally give up on the white styrofoam though.

I found it to be great for filling in large spaces and building hills and mountains. It is light and easy to work with, but it is messy and leaves white particles around as you work on it. I just wait until I'm ready to apply paint or hydrocal and then I vacuum the debris up.

I just finished a test diarama using orange stryrofoam for the track base and white for the cliff beside the track and I will use the white stuff everywhere else except under my Kato Unitrack. That will cut costs considerably.

I can send you a photo of the diarama ( 8" X 30") if you like and a couple of neat tips on how to turn white styrofoam into great looking rock really cheaply in a matter of minutes.

 

You can have the blue styrofoam. I will never EVER use it for any structural requirement on any future layouts. It will only be used as scenery. I have been really ripping this junk as I have been watching it just ruin a club N scale layout. Members no longer with us, designed and built the albatross layout we now have, including C55 track (later) and use of blue foam as base over plywood.

The stuff is like a sponge and can mangle track from an elbow or lean in-to from inches away. It has ZERO structural integrity and now we are considering ripping it all up and using a plywood/homasote underbase which will withstand the rigors of many members working on it and running trains.

My personal 14x7 layout uses a plywood riser underbase, then cord roadbed. My C80 flex track has maintained its integrity since '86 and is running trains without incident today.

In contrast, our club layout is 4 months old.

Foam should remain in surfboards.

Ken "Steamguy" Willaman

 

Please do! I'd love to see it. Oh, and thanks again for understanding.

-sd80mac-

 

Actually, I don't use blue foam Ken, where I am in Canada we only have pink building styrofoam which I assume is similar. I don't use it for structural support either, even though the pink stuff is designed to support 200 lbs dead weight before compressing. Maybe your blue foam is inferior to our pink stuff!

But I agree with you about not using blue or pink foam under the track on a club layout; where you may be using hand laid or flex track and all the heavyweights may not just be passenger coaches running on the tracks.

I don't use flex or handlaid track, I use Kato Unitrack and I can reach everywhere on my modules without using the scenery for support.

My track also is laid on a wooden base or equivalent with the two inch pink styrofoam on top and the Kato unitrack hot glued to that.

I find it easier to remove malfunctioning track or switches that way and specifically, if I'm not happy with the scenery looks I can cut out the foam and put in culverts or bridges or whatever. I don't like builing in granite and homasote is about $50 a sheet here.

I'm building modular, so I have to keep the weight down as these modules are designed to eventually go to shows.

To each his own requirements.

 

I only use the white foam. This is more than strong enough the way I build my layout. I use a plywood base and glue the foam onto it. After cutting the foam into shape I use a water-glue-sawdust mix to cover the hills. This gives a light and yet very strong and hard cover. No tracks are layed on the foam. I use a plywood base as well. The tracks are glued on Woodlands foam track bed.

To see some pics of my construction technics please check the picture galleries on my homepage www.sschaer.com