Foam board baseboard- point motors

[johna]

I am in the process of building a new micro layout using 5mm foamboard purchased from Hobbycraft. I am surprised how strong the baseboard is but I would like to use MTB point motors but does anyone have any suggestions for installing them. I was thinking of glueing  some plywood under the foam board then attaching the point motor to it but not sure if  this would be strong enough . 
 

Johna

[Andrew Biro]

This is what I have done but I found foamboard sags a bit and needs some extra support

[Gwiwer]

I have a foam-board base for Porthgarrow largely to keep the overall weight within what one person can carry to and from the car and an exhibition hall.  

 

It does not support point motors.  The points are hand-operated.  An alternative would be a pull-rod system using brass rod but that introduces a measure of flex in the mechanics which may be more than the length of pull and / or the board can cope with.  A case for trial and error perhaps.  

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, johna said:

I am in the process of building a new micro layout using 5mm foamboard purchased from Hobbycraft. I am surprised how strong the baseboard is but I would like to use MTB point motors but does anyone have any suggestions for installing them. I was thinking of glueing  some plywood under the foam board then attaching the point motor to it but not sure if  this would be strong enough . 
 

Johna

If you use foamboard to form proper engineering structures such as box, I or T girders they are immensely strong.

My H0 layout uses foamboard for the surface and the points are operated by point levers arranged along the front of the board and connected to the tie bars by wire in tube. The levers are screwed to smallish pieces of thin ply glied to the baseboard surface and have never given any problem in about fifteen years. The good thing about using foamboard is that it's very easy to add additional cross members made from it and simply glued to the bottom of the baseboard surface. If you find one in the way of a point motor simply replacing it doesn't involve any carpentry.

Edited January 6 by Pacific231G

[jpendle]

Hi,

 

You might want to reconsider, if it's not too late, and use 1/2" or 1" XPS instead.

I've used that for my hone layout, it doesn't sag and I just glue my Tortoise point motors to the underside of the XPS.

I'm planning on using MTB's when I extend the layout and I plan on just gluing these in place as well.

 

Regards,

 

John P

[Izzy]

I use foamboard for my layouts. But either in multiple layers, or coated both sides with mountboard. On its own a single layer of 5mm foamboard is liable to depress/crease under the slightest pressure and won’t recover. Two layers are much better. A single layer used to produce a lightweight layout cover is fine though. I also cover the entire top layer in cork. I currently have 4 such layouts in use, all around 60” x 10-12” + fiddles (one or both ends).

 

Bob

[n9]

I use 4cm thick XPS and was planning to install motors as suggested towards the end of this article. It is essentially gluing bits of MDF where the motors will go. FWIW, I've tested mounting Cobalt IPs that way with IIRC 10cm long piano wire, and they seemed to be happy throwing through that thickness of board. I'll probably end up going with MTBs though. I'd worry that your 5mm foam might not be rigid enough too, so best to do a test.