Foam Board

[Anonymous]

Im just starting my first "real" model railroad and i was wondering when first placing the foam board down on the table, what are you supposed to do about the switch machines. (the electronic pieces that switch the switches). I know that they are big enough to go through the plywood, but the extra inch plus of space that is added with the foam is too much. Hopefully this makes sense and any info would help.
Thanks

[rrinker]

It really depends on what kind of switch machines you are talking about. If you use foam without plywood and use Tortoise, you can dropt hem in fromthe top. Or with plywood - you need to get some music wire at the hobby shop and cut new actuating wires, not only are the included ones too short, they really aren't stiff enough to provide good pressure. For Atlas under table, I recall seeing an article in MR that showed how to add an extension to work through a thicker tabletop. Basically a short piece of brass tubing, and a piece of wire. The wire gets soldered inside one end of the tube, and the tube is slipped over the existing plastic pin and glued with CA. For other types that work with a springy wire - you do basically the same as the Tortoise, use a longer piece of slightly thicker wire. For Peco switch motors, you can cut out an opening in the foam so they drop down from the top, since they clip right on the turnout itself.

--Randy

[Seamonster]

You can also mount the Peco switch machines under the table with an adapter plate that Peco makes. Some of their point motors come with long pins for this purpose, but they may not be long enough for foam and most of their point motors have short pins, so you'll have to lengthen them. Use the same method as Randy suggested above--brass tubing to splice on some piano wire. If you don't have plywood under the foam, you'll have to glue a little plate of wood under the foam. I moved some Peco point motors under the layout when I relayed track because I didn't like the big holes that they require. Because the big holes were still there, I couldn't mount the adapter to the layout, so I made some 2 1/2" square plates out of 1/4" "hobby wood" from Home Depot, drilled a 1/2" dia. hole in the centre, mounted the adapter and point motor to that, and fastened the plate under the layout. One thing about the adapter plates--they're designed for the point motors with metal bodies and mounting tabs, not the plastic ones. I'll have to figure out how to attach the plastic-tabbed ones to them--probably just epoxy them on.

Hope this helps.