This section explains the important step of reinforcing (or stressed skinning) the 1" (25mm) foam sheet to give it tensile strength on the bottom surface. The top is not such a problem as the extruded foam seems to have reasonable compressive strength.

This technique borrows from bridge building and surf board building techniques - remembering that our loading is occurring primarily from the top. You can also use it on 2" foam to allow increased distance between the supporting battens.

I am assuming that you are not going to be walking around on the top of the layout! Having said that, I have stood on the layout by placing strategic wide pieces of plywood on distributed spacers between the tracks and close to the edges.

The technique is extremely simple - coat the bottom side with a layer of cloth glued to the the surface. You could use exotics like fibreglass or carbon fibre cloth - but we are not building a spacecraft! Just some cheap muslin cloth is what I use from a fabric shop. A tea towel may do the job. Cut it a bit oversize; coat it with a generous layer of PVA glue and squeegee it into the surface ... as below.

This was test run I did in 2008 when I lived at Bensville (I tend to live in places with strange names). It was a test track for both DC and DCC which fitted on the bar in our lounge room. It reflects the track layout used at Oberon in the Central West of NSW when I lived nearby at Hazelgrove. The latter was a station on the now closed/ suspended railway from Tarana to Oberon. A model of the mighty Hazelgrove station will feature on Kalrail layout (later to re-named "Brolgan Road").

The underside of the test track shows that 1" foam has been coated with muslin and fitted with a light weight frame. The ugly blocks on the right were added to help it fit on the bar which was a bit narrow. It is 2m long, 58cm wide and weighs 4kg. Could be made much lighter with thinner timber and no ugly blocks.