Foam Board questions for track

Latex paint. Oil paints might dissolve the foam.
I use foam adhesive to connect foam to the table or foam to foam. It makes a permanent bond though.

Here's another approach. Install, say 1/2" plywood, use tubular track that is inexpensive and readily available and then match it up with Johnson rubber roadbed. You will achieve wonderful sound reduction qualities and you can ditch the Styrofoam.

I have used this system since 1996 with excellent results. 

Use water based glues and paints with extruded styrofoam. They will not attack the foam. The foam is easy to cover with acrylic paints. The first time I used it for a layout was about 20 years ago for an N scale layout. I painted areas brown and then covered them with ground foam for grass, gravel, dirt and other surfaces. I used spackle to cover seams when I used a few pieces to make the surface for the trains to run on. These photos give an idea of how it worked out.







I built my O gauge layout in sections that are bolted together. It's not modular. Each section is made with a 1x4 frame and covered with 1" thick styrofoam from either Lowe's or Home Depot. The sections are very strong yet very light. I covered the foam with 7/16" thick carpet padding to reduce running noise, and they covered with padding with Woodland Scenics Vinyl Grass mats. This photo shows the layers.



The FasTrack on my mainline and the RealTrax on the upper loop are not screwed down. The track sections stay together and don't move so securing them isn't necessary though I plan on adding ballast along the sides of the track and the white glue will bond the track to the layout as well as the ballast to the track.

The 2 big advantages of using styrofoam over plywood are weight and ease of construction. Plywood is very heavy and difficult to cut to make custom size pieces. Foam is light and very easy to cut.

On the Christmas section, I used white foam board, Liquid Nails Foam compatible glue to 3/8th plywood with Atlas O track.

On the Spring/Summer section, I used Pink 2" foam board and I'm using LeMax grass mats and construction paper on top of that - Liquid Nailed to a Ping Pong Table. 50% Fastrack and Atlas O

On the above, it is resilient enough not to dent and will hold my 180 lbs of weight.

Halloween is 1/2" plywood Liquid Nailed under another 2" pink foam board. This is 3' wide and is something I can work with so the lighter weight construction doesn't need to hold me up.  All Fastrack.

I have had great success with pink or white foam board(s).  

My next layout at Jenni's will have a wood perimeter and some bracing underneath to hold a 4X8 sheet of foam board and will be lighter and easy to move around.

I have 2" styrofoam that sits directly on folding tables - wiring is run in conduits screwed to the front of the tables. Some wiring is in/on the layout surface, but none underneath anywhere. Not for everyone, but it works for my physical limitations - I.e. NO crawling or working under the layout 
FW

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I built a couple of little N-scale dioramas out of 1" thick pink foam insulation just to test the concept based on what I had been reading on some forums.

Then, light years later, I set some O-gauge GarGraves track on top of the N-scale diorama track, along with a couple of O-gauge trains, and took a few pictures.  Just for kiks and grins, mind you (and to prove a point at the time)............................................




Whadaya think?  Note: latex paint and acrylic caulks, and anything else water-based for foam safety.

Looks like it is coming along nicely. This will be a fun layout!

I have my track pretty close to the edge, but I don’t run them very fast. If you plan to hand the controls over to the grandkids you will want to stay away from the edge or install a lip that could prevent a train from taking the invisible tracks to the floor.