Holloway Goods

Hi Julie, looks like a visually interesting arrangement. One thing you may want to keep in mind is that foamboard sometimes warps if it isn't laminated in uneven numbers. I'm not sure whether it's a problem if you glue it to a wood base (which seems to be the plan here?) but worth keeping an eye on maybe.

I've been following other people's experience in the model press. I've seen other people use plastic based, but then you have the same problems, as with Pecos foam track ballast & the foam crumbles, due to exposure to UV light.

 

Julie

Julie, a couple of things spring to mind.

You should be able to get thinner foamcore.

You can also get Palight which I think might be a better option as far as UV stability goes.

If you took that route I would suggest sanding the surface of the palight (to lightly roughen it) then scribing the sets etc into it.

Just some thoughts you could consider.

 

Khris

You can get 3mm thickness readily. As the fome is sandwiched between card would light manage to degrade the core over the normal life of a railway? I have several prints laminated on fomeboard hanging exposed to daylight, some coming on for twenty years now and have not seen any problems with them.

The foam I am proposing to use, is blown paper pulp, and this has better UV characteristics than plastic foam.

 

You can improve the protection of plastic foam to the effects of UV radiation by painting it. I've done this with Peco plastic foam, by spray painting it with grey paint. At this point Sidney Prichard is probably spinning in his grave. Peco have never accepted that painting the Peco product is acceptable.

 

The current Peco demonstration layout, recently moved to a northern model shop has all the track ballast uncoloured and completly clean!

 

Track ballast is not the same in different parts of the country. Oil from locomotives causes black patches, where loco's stand for example at signals and bay platforms.

 

Track ballast in a given location varies because, not all of it is the same age. As parts of the track require to re-tampted as a result of track settlement new ballast is added, which is fresh and unweathered.

 

These differences can be simulated, on a model by differences in the painting.

 

Julie