LAYOUT CONSTRUCTION

1. Can I screw the track to the foam board?  Yes, will it hold, I dont know

2. How do I fasten the foam board to the plywood? Liquid Nails

3. Can I paint the pink foam insulation board? could I use latex paint? Latex is fine, I use a primer like water based Killz.

4. Do I need special tools to cut the foam board? Make sure you have new blades if you use a cutter.  You can get a hot wire foam cutter. You might need a straight edge.

5. Are there any magazine articles or books on this subject? I don't know

From what I have learned here is to try and keep the track screws out of the plywood and that conducts the noise into the wood - so I ignored that and screwed my Fastrack to the plywood and yes the advise is correct.  I guess if you screw to the foam and then ballast, the ballast will hold down the track more than the screws.

google "making mts. out of styrofoam or"making moden RR mts. and there are some great tutorials a fellow does vis youtube. He goes through step by step use of insulation board etc.

pink foam insulation board will not hold nails or screws.   i glue homasote to the top of the foam; it holds screws pretty well.  i have also covered foam with plaster cloth after shaping it, this smooths the terrain.

foam board is messy to cut.   if you use power tools, too much dust.   you can use a hot wire but toxic fumes.   best to just use a handsaw and vaccum up the dust as you go - all the dust is static charged and clings to everything.

solvent-based paints or glues will dissolve foam board.   use latex paints and primers, and the special version of liquid nails (or other construction adhesive) that is water-based for foam.

foam board is not the best sound insulator - it's rigid enough to transmit much of the sound.   soundboard like homasote does a better job.   the pink foam board's best use is to build up inclines and terrain: then glue homasote on it for trackbed.

I have a tinplate layout on foam and found it a very good base. I power the track with spade connectors at the end of the feed wires coming right up from under the track, so that goes a long way in holding the tack in place. Then in just a few places around the layout I used some hot glue. Never had a problem with it moving around. 

I painted the foam board with some "oops" paint from home depot, it was a rather ugly tan that worked well for the a base and cost me $5 for the gallon.

For cutting I have a couple hot wire foam cutters for detail (use a mask and lots of ventilation, this stuff is dangerous) and for large cuts I used an old, large, kitchen knife. You want to cut as clean as possible so you don't leave little bits around. 

I used a dull pencil to shape cut stone into a couple walls, then painted with acrylics.

The one thing I regret, and I will be fixing in my rebuild, is that I just used the foam on top of the benchwork. Currently it's only 4' deep so i don't need to climb on it, and it makes for a nice light layout for moving around, but it really acts like a drum, so when three trains are running it's very loud.

There are a lot of samples of modeling that people on the forum have done with walls and rock ledges with foam board. Look around a bit. I download images that I like, so if you ever want a collection of samples, email me and I'll send you what I got.

Best of luck. keep us updated on progress.

Tim