Modelling Maine Railroads

This afternoon, I added, carved, and shaped foam board for the Low's Bridge  scene on my layout. I first added two roughly one by two foot foam layers, each one inch thick. I then carved the rouh shape of the riverbank into the foam. After that, I used a rasp to shape and smooth the foam. The Low's Bridge area on my layout at the beginning of the afternoon. Test fitting the first layer of foam board. The first layer of foam board attached. Note the roughed in shape of the riverbed of the Pistcataquis River on the extreme left of the picture. The top layer of foam attached, making the foam board at Low's Bridge even with the foam board of the rest of the layout. The slope of the riverbank roughed in using a small knife. After initial shaping with the rasp. I then laid track at Low's Bridge and roughed up the foam board on the inland side of the track. This is how the Low's Bridge area looked by the end of the aft...

On Monday night, I cut and attached foam board to make a basic, flat, layout surface for my new layout. I used one inch thick foam board for this. Installation was fast and simple, and I did not have any problems with the foam board. I used a combination of wood glue and screws to secure the foam board on the layout. On the layout, I used a single two by eight foot piece of foam board to make up the main layout section, while I used some decent sized peices of foam that I had on hand in order to finish adding foam board to the layout. I still have to add more foam around Low's Bridge, as that area was attached to the main layout benchwork two inches lower than the rest of the layout, in order to make it easier to model the bridge. This afternoon, I'm hoping that I can build up the foam at Low's bridge so that tracklaying on the layout can comence. This is what I started out with - A large shhet of fresh foam board. This sheet is now the base for the what will be ...