Laying down road bed

[Johnr0836]

I printed my layout on paper, full size. I'm thinking of using wall paper paste to glue the paper to the foam and then use silicon caulk to glue the road bed to the paper. Has anyone done this? I've never worked with foam before. Do you think the wall paper paste will be sufficient to hold the paper to the foam? Thanks.

John

 

[Nomad]

John,I see a big problem with that idea. When you ballast or do scenery(get it wet) the wallpaper paste will let go and loosen. What I have heard of most people doing is poke holes with a pin at the track centers,remove the paper and follow the pin holes to draw your track centers on the foam.

Loren

 

[Gary S.]

I'm with Loren. I wouldn't make the paper a permanent part of the layout.

 

[sumpter250]

I've never tried using wallpaper paste, on styrene foam. It can be a bit of a trial to get it to stick to a wall, so I would be seriously dubious as to it's holding power on foam, especially once it gets wet from scenery, or ballast work. (on the other hand, it just might be the best method yet. I would test it before going ahead with the layout)
Pete

 

[Jim Krause]

I can't add anything more except that it doesn't sound like a workable solution.

 

[Dansco]

Pounce It!

My wife used to work in the Neon sign fabrication biz. She frequently had to translate designs from paper to asbestos fabric. She used what was known as a "pounce" wheel and a "pounce bag"

The wheel looked like a pizza cutter wheel with little spikes on it. Hers how it might work: First you affix the printed design to your desired medium, in your case the foam, then trace the desired lines with the pounce wheel. This creates a perforation of little holes where ever you traced. Next you take a "sock" full of marking chalk (for snapping lines etc) and "gently daub" (or pounce?) the perforations you just made, gently remove the paper and trace over the chalk dot to dot with a marker. Effectively transferring the design from the paper to the foam.

I wonder though, with foam, if you need to bother with the chalk and marker at all, it seems the pounce wheel would just as easily mark the foam with little holes as it punches through the paper.. interesting… maybe you’ll need to rub some chalk into the holes so they show up better.. hum, possibilities…

 

[Johnr0836]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was thinking about a similar process. My sister has always done alot of sewing and she uses a spiked wheel the a carbon type paper to transfer the pattern to the fabric. I'm going to experiment with gluing the plan down with Liquid Nails for Projects. As I was gluing the foam down I found I could use a plastic spreader to lay down a very thin coat of glue. I've got some extra foam to try it with.

John

 

[fsm1000]

I did [and do] something similar to what you did. I make fullsize templates but I don't bothe gluing it to the foam [maybe I should ]
Anyhow, I use white glue. I has always worked for me. BUT there is a special way to do it so that it actually sticks and does not pool up on you and leave a mess. Go have a look and maybe it will help.

I hope you keep coming back and have fun.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not sure if I understand completely what you want to do. If you are going to cut out the part of the paper that outlines the roadbed and just glue that down, it should work. I would use yellow carpenter's glue or some other type of glue that is waterproof. If you are talking about gluing sheets of paper down that have the layout drawn on them, any paper that isn't directly under the roadbed will probably interfere with scenery that you want to add later.

 

[Squidbait]

You could also use a foam-safe spray adhesive. 3M 77 used to be OK, but they changed the formula. They now have a new foam-safe spray, but I don't recall off the top of my head what the # is.

 

[BigJim]

The spiked sewing wheel sounds like the best suggestion. The first way seems like a waste of glue and I am not sure I would want paper under the track or other area.

...Jim

 

[waredbear]

Marking the Center Line

This is what I used and I think Dansco is talking about above...

In the fabric section of Wally World for only 97c.

I ran the center line of my print-out from XTrkCad. I was on a piece of waffer board so I had to run the wheel back and forth to make a mark. You might be able to do it once on a standard piece of plywood or on foam. It leaves this nice line of dimples.

I traced these with a marker to get my center line.

Can't beat it for ease or the price.

Later
Reid

 

[Biased turkey]

John, if your layout is made out of sectional track ( NOT Flextrack ) you won't even need a paper template. Assemble all your tracks on top of the foam, secure them with masking tape and with a fine or medium felt-tip marker mark a dot at mid distance between the rails . The nail holes in the middle of the ties will help to mark the proper spot.