A different knid of foam

[ndbprr]

I work for a company that supplies the foam that goes around electronics like computers for shipping. As such I have access to a variety of materials and foams. One of the foams is a 1/8" think polyethylene that I am considering using in place of cork. I can cut it into one inch strips and use liquid nails or hot glue to hold it to the subroadbed and the track to it. It is dense enough that comprssion will not be a problem and is about 95% air so sound suppresion should be good. Any thoughts?

Also if you have a cushion packaging company in your area we have to pay people to haul away the scrap. It is considered a biohazzard since it doren't degrade in landfills even though you could eat the stuff with no ill efects. It ranges from foam rubber consistency to as a hard as a brick and is in wierd shapes but is excellent for terrain shaping and should be free for the asking. We bundle the stuff in 2' x 2' x 4' compressed bundles that open to about 100 cubic feet or more each.

[nfmisso]

Build a test track - a simple oval is fine, and compare it to three other roadbed materials; for instance Woodland Scenics foam, AMI rubber, cork, Homabed.... Give each kind some curve and some straight. Then let us know. I think that you will find the polyethylene foam to be a good choice.

Before doing the above, you should probably test various adhesives (Liquid Nails for Project, regular Liquid Nails, Hot Glue, Aleene's Tacky Glue, CA, carpet tape....) on the polyethylene foam. Polyethylene is hard to adhere to.

One of the members of the Atlas forum mentioned using wood floor underlayment, as I understand it (with info from other sources); Perigo uses a foam underlayment with thier wood flooring systems. He cut this into strips like you describe, and is quite pleased.

[ndbprr]

We glue Polethylene all the time so it might depend on how you are doing it and what you are using. Hot glue works fine.