Well, I tried to respond on MR, and the link they give gets a 404, and ASKmr@mrmag bounces.
So...I was reading the article in this month's issue on scratchbuilding the loading ramp, when I got to filling the ramp up. STOP! Or, to quote a well-known song, "hold it right there, ke-id." He puts broken packing peanuts in, then puts sawdust and thinned white glue. DO NOT DO THIS, *until* you have tested the packing peanuts. For a good number of years now, a lot of them are made to recycle out of corn. Put some water on one *before* you do this. In fact, just putting one peanut to your tongue will tell you the answer: if it's corn, it will begin to dissolve on your tongue. Don't do that unless they're plastic, not corn, or you'll have a sticky, slushy mess.
I think you can use spray adhesive with those 'starch' biodegradable peanuts... or spray them with cheap clear coating.
A rookie mistake by MR staff not to mention this, though...
whitroth"Re scratchbuilding a loading ramp".
Perhaps not like you were expecting, but I have several of these around my layout...(disclaimer: No peanuts, sawdust, or white glue was harmed in any of the examples shown below.)
...and of course there are loading ramps for livestock, too...
...and lots of industries use them too, even though there's no ramp included...
Wayne
I built one a few years ago using foam peanuts (don't know if they were the edible kind ) and then cut sections of wood from a 1/8x1/8 of balsa wood of proper length to cover the peanut form including both sides and the end. Used similar pieces to make a ramp. Gave them a color that "looks like wood." No piers so it was a solid piece all around. Not entirely typical, but almost certainly done somewhere. Not the most artistic, but works for me.
Mike
Very nice layout.
Edible was meant to be a bad joke I did use Elmer's glue and build it on a small piece of foam core which is my go to as a base for the many scenes on the layout. It makes it easier to build, landscape and detail on my workbench. If that scene needs to be removed and replaced or repaired it can go back to the workbench.