Depron plastic foam underlay

Railconsultant1

Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Railconsultant1 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:30 pm

Dear All,

Does anyone on the Scalefour Forum have any experience of using "Depron" expanded polystryene foam as undarlay for the track, the object being to mitigate the noise that comes from the baseboards. The makers offer verious thickness and densities specifically for modelling applications, but which one is best? Not too soft so that the track undulates and yet thick enough to absorb the sound.

For those not familiar with this underlay, their website is http://www.depronfoam.com and the data sheets for the various types of foam are available as .pdf data sheets.

Any ideas welcome.

Martin Allen

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Paul Willis
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Paul Willis » Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:32 am

Railconsultant1 wrote:Does anyone on the Scalefour Forum have any experience of using "Depron" expanded polystryene foam as undarlay for the track, the object being to mitigate the noise that comes from the baseboards. The makers offer verious thickness and densities specifically for modelling applications, but which one is best? Not too soft so that the track undulates and yet thick enough to absorb the sound.


Hi Martin,

The short answer is "no". BTW, it's EXTRUDED foam, not expanded. Very different stuff altogether.

However looking at the website, it seems to be very similar to the insulation board material that is available from DIY stores http://www.wickes.co.uk/space-board-eco-insulation/invt/161297/. The Depron stuff simply seems to be in thinner sheet form, and _possibly_ higher quality.

The insulation board approach has been used increasingly for modelling. See for example in MRJ:

Pretty in Pink
Derek Vaughan
Issue 156 (2005) p.25
Derek Vaughan found traditional baseboards were far too heavy to move around. Searching for a lightweight substitute of comparable rigidity, he discovered the amazing properties of styrofoam.

I think that more than a couple of people on here have used it as well. I'm planning on using a board of it for my Standard Gauge Workbench layout, which I'll be starting once I've knocked a couple of other projects on the head. My understanding is that you can lay the track directly on it, and I'm also hoping that it will be a good sound-deadening base. However, as has been discussed before, there can be many other factors (eg. how ballast is fixed) that can make a layout noisy or not.

HTH
Flymo
Beware of Trains - occasional modelling in progress!
www.5522models.co.uk

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Re6/6
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Re6/6 » Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:53 pm

Although slightly OT here are some links to discussions about the use of foam for baseboard construction. Quite a lot to wade through but some useful stuff in there for those who might be interested.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... spaceboard

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... aseboards/
John

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:47 pm

Martin's original question was about track underlay, not baseboard construction. The usual underlay is flexible closed cell foam as sold earlier by Exactoscale. The Depron website seems to only talk about rigid sheets, which my intuition says would not be a good underlay. But as with Flymo I have no experience of it.
I did try some of the Exactoscale variety some years back, but preferred the traditional cork.
Keith
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Andrew Ullyott
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Andrew Ullyott » Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:52 pm

Hi
I've not used Depron but have built boards using 50mm thick Trylon extruded polystyrene. It's not very quiet at all. Sound is amplified, a bit like a drum skin.
Previous layouts have used the C&L foam and traditional camping mat. Both were excellent at sound reduction and I think I'll be using this as underlay again. Extruded foam boards are fine (and very light weight) but my feeling is the Depron stuff won't be that good. Incidentally, you can buy soft foam from craft shops (The Range) which is very similar to the C&L foam in terms of softness but only about 1.5mm thick and comes in A4 sheets. Must dig some out and post a picture.
Edited for typo.
Last edited by Andrew Ullyott on Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Philip Hall
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Philip Hall » Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:11 pm

Hobbycraft also sell the rubber sheet, but also in A3 size, in a few colours including black.

Philip

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David B
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby David B » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:00 am

Philip Hall wrote:Hobbycraft also sell the rubber sheet, but also in A3 size, in a few colours including black.


. . . which is 2mm thick and excellent for lining stock boxes.

David

billbedford

Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby billbedford » Sat Aug 31, 2013 8:21 am

'Ocorse the other way of making sure your layout is not noisy is to make sure all your stock has properly sprung suspensions…...

dal-t
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby dal-t » Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:40 am

Maybe a better use for the Depron would be to stick small strips inside all the hollow boxes being hauled around, to stop them acting as mobile echo chambers?
David L-T

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Will L
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Re: Depron plastic foam underlay

Postby Will L » Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:52 pm

billbedford wrote:'Ocorse the other way of making sure your layout is not noisy is to make sure all your stock has properly sprung suspensions…...

Now that hadn't occurred to me before, but it does have the ring of truth.

Will


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