nScale.net car - Artwork vote

Several of us in Northern NJ N-Trak added a 60' section to our club layout and did much of it in foam.  Base was 3" blue roofing insulation foam (from a commercial supplier of roofing materials; much less expensive than home centers) sitting on a wood frame.  Cork roadbed was added for track on grade (sheet cork for yards).  Watch for warping in the bug, thick sheets!  Make sure it is flat or trains will bob up and down, and you know what that does to couplers!

 We uses Wooodland Scenics flexible risers for curved sections, but on long straights we cut the roofing foam on a table saw, either constant height or on a slope for grades.  The foam cuts smooth as silk.  I used low temp. hot glue to tack risers (all) in place while foam compatible glue in a caulking gun (applied prior to the tack-down process) dried (which often takes 24 hours or so because the foam doesn't breathe).  Or use the WS foam glue; I still tack it with hot glue; much faster building that way.   1/4" cheap plywood was glued to the foam risers, and cork roadbed to that.  Plywood use was debated, but we wanted a very smooth, firm base for the trackwork, as major sections would be hidden behind scenery or in mountains (see below).

I build mountain sections from 3/4" (scales to 10') thick pink insulation foam bevel cut on contour lines to make hollow, light scenery.  I can build an entire mountain range from one or two 2x8 sheets of pink 3/4" foam!

You can notch the sides of the inisulation foam risers to bend them but the WS flexible pieces are very good at ... flexing.  The dense insuslation foam doesn't make the mess that the white "bead board" does.

Everything was wired for DCC but witk multiple power districts then with insulators and power feeds basically every 2 sections of flex track for isolation, turnouts and yards, other speciala track section handled individiually. We used flex track for just about everything except turnouts.

Hope this helps.