Laying track on styrofoam

[Tricky Dicky]

Polystyrene foam reacts with PVC insulation on wires, polyurethane foam does not. PU foam is the stuff used for insulation and in its natural form tends to be a creamy to yellow colour. The OP mentioned his foam was coated with a thin foil this suggests to me he has PU.

RICHARD

[Silly Moo]

I agree with Tricky Dicky regarding the use of foam for layouts, it’s a relatively new approach but can be made to work well as the range of Woodland Scenics products prove.

I have made a few layouts with styrofoam baseboards and have done as Mountain Goat suggests and put the wiring through plastic tubing. I have used Woodland Scenics foam track bed glued in place with PVA glue and once that is dry the track glued down with more PVA glue and held in place with map pins. For this method you do need to know exactly where your track is going though. I also used a combination of streamline and set track with set track for tight curves as streamline track under a lot of tension is difficult to hold in place with pins.

My layouts have all been small and the points have been hand or wire in tube operated. If you are planning on using point motors some sort of strengthening in those areas will need to be considered.

There are pros and cons to both methods of contstruction.