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In my experience foam is great for scenery but makes lousy roadbed. The only track I have directly on the foam is industrial sidings with no turnouts.
... My problem was trying to put the track directly on the foam, which is the way I interpreted the question. Been there, done that, it didn't work. Foam has no resistance to side pressure (sheer), and everything works loose sooner or later. ...
David: Just proves that what works for one may not for another. Or, in the investor's language, past performance isn't evidence of future results. I can see where the tape might work as well as wood, assuming that the sheer forces can't work the parts loose.My problem was trying to put the track directly on the foam, which is the way I interpreted the question. Been there, done that, it didn't work. Foam has no resistance to side pressure (sheer), and everything works loose sooner or later. Now, if the entire mechanism is attached to the turnout, as with Unitrack, there's no problem. That can also be done with conventional turnouts by adding some type of base or bracket under the turnout. A piece of wood or metal firmly attached to the ties would be fine, as is Peco's idea of the machines having tabs that fit holes in the ties.
My experience with both the white and gray foams is somewhat the opposite. Pure lateral (sheer) force resistance is very good...
For standard machines under the foam, the engineer in me likes the crank-wire-in-tube approach, making the long transit a rotary action instead of trying to pass the springy linear movement that distance.
Thanks for the information! I'm leaning towards using bullfrogs or bluepoint controllers. I know the FreeMoN guys use a lot of the bullfrogs on their modules - which are usually foam. Has anyone tried this setup? Any information on these? Thanks!