The new MTH Layout at York.

[NYC Fan]

As we were told would happen, MTH displayed an all new layout at York.  Athough it was very well done, it seemed to be a bit less intricate and was missing some of the cool features of the previous layout, like the spot where the locomotive of the train almost hits it's own caboose.

One point of interest:  I appears that the mountainous areas were made with foam rubber, not styrofoam, this was actually spongy foam rubber.  I would be very interested to know if anyone else has used foam rubber to make mountains. 

 

[pbjwilson]

Yes, I've used upholstry foam for making rock cliffs. Real easy to work with and it bends to fit any curve. I think the stuff I had was about 2" thick. I just went at it with a scissors and made random cuts in it to simulate rock. I glued it in place with caulk. All the little pieces that were cut out I used as individual rocks. Painted it with a grey latex paint and it really sucked up the paint. Took a while for it to dry. But when it dried it became much more rigid. Sprinkled with ground foam and hid the seam where it met the bench top with lichen and chunks of groand foam. Its really good in places where two levels of track are close together and you need a vertical rock wall to fill the gap.

[Neil B.]

Skip,

The MTH layout isn't foam rubber. The guys at MTH told me that it's spray foam (insulation foam from a can) that has been carved into rock shapes. The air bubbles in the foam created the porous look.

Neil Besougloff
editor

[NYC Fan]

Interesting Neil.  I never knew spray foam to feel that spongy!!

[dwiemer]

I did not see the layout, didn't even get to York, but I have seen where foam rubber was used.  A lady who owns a layout MFG company uses it all the time.  She is the one who makes the $10,000.00 and up layouts for Hammlecher/Schlemmer(sp?).  They do look real and she is proud of how she goes to furniture repair places and places who are tossing old cussions and takes the foam from there.

dennis