Foam for home so I can roam

4' x 6' x 4.5" styrofoam layout board

I've spent some time over the last few days gluing together the all styrofoam base for the new HO streetcar layout.

This slab is made up of 1.5" x 14.5" x 48" sheets of cheap styrofoam held together with wood glue and transfer tape to form a 3 layer board measuring 72" x 48".

Three layers of 1.5" styrofoam

The board is quite straight, but it took a rather laborious process of overlapping and gluing sheet after sheet on the layout table to get the alignment right. 

Rigidity is good too. Back in the summer I did some impromptu static loading tests on a little loop layout I had built from glued up foam sheets that suggested such a board could easily handle the minuscule loads from a train layout.

You'll notice in the load tests pink foam sheets were glued to the bottom of the layout board, and this no doubt provided an extra measure of strength.  The plan is to add a 1" thick pink foam layer to the bottom to give the board that little bit of extra strength, and make it somewhat more robust.

Gluing the layers together

It's far lighter than an equivalent wooden frame, and it'll continue to get a bit lighter as the final outline will be a smaller kidney shape that I'll cut out once the track is installed.

I'll admit to an anti-wood-frame agenda :-) With this layout, as well as with the Loonar Module and the E. L. Moore dioramas, I'm going all out to see what building layouts without internal wood framing has in store. 

I have some thoughts on how to secure the layout to the support frame and install wiring, but they haven't yet been finalized. 

Another thing to be resolved is how to give the edge a bit of impact resistance. It'll need some sort of trim glued on to help minimize dings and dents.

The whole idea here is to make the base light enough for me to carry up to the living room by myself for showing off at Christmas and such, and allow it to be easily loaded into the back of the CRV. So far so good, but I've got to be diligent in keeping the weight in check.