Although I am not using

Although I am not using Tortise machines, I do use manual throws with linkages underneath 2" pink foam road bed. I simply drill a hole through it like I would with any material to ensure I have enough  clearance for the throws. The thickness has not interefered with the amount of movement i needed to move the points. I drill a hole about the width of the rail, or more, but not beyond the ties. I then use tape on the underside of the turnout to hide most of the hole. So just the opening along the throwbar is visible, not the entire diameter of the hole. Saw that trick on this forum somwhere.  

To mount the machines, or my bracket assembly, I hot glue a wood platform the underside of the foam. Usually this is good enough, but if there are weak spots I add supporting wood members beside the bracket and glue those as well.  I would think you could glue some wood platforms to the foam and the attach the tortise to the wood?     Hope this helps?

Steve

2 solutions

I have used 2 methods for working with thick foam raodbed. On a small "N" layout I mounted the Tortoise machines directly to the bottom of the turnout and then cut an appropriate opening in the foam for clearance. Cork and ground cover covered the hole. This approach yielded several advantages, the most important being that the tortoise, frog and turnout feeder wiring could be done on the bench. Secondly the tortoise actuator wire was very short yielding excellent throw distance and power. No standing on my head.

The second approach is to make the throwbar actuator a crank arm that rotates and extends below the foam. The crank arm twists or turns if you would within a 1/16 OD brass tube glued into the foam. the Tortoise is then mounted on the bottom of the foam.

Steve Raiford

Slow mo switch machines with 2" foam roadbed

Pat,

I've using Tortoise switch machines with 2" foam baseboards for about two years now, first off I made a template which showed the track centre line and the tiebar centre line, I allowed for the throw mechanism and cut a snug oblong hole through the foam using the template, the tortoise then drops snugly in and is held securely by the sides of the foam opening, once it is in position you can mark where the fixing lugs on the switch machine come and cut away the foam so that it rests flush with the baseboard surface, or if you are using cork roadbed just leave it as it is.

best wishes

Pete Williams, Uxbridge, UK

A few lessons learned using Foam

Easy to do.

I have mounted a number of Tortii under my layout which is a mixture of blue foam (same stuff, different supplier) slab and blue foam spline.

First, you have to make preparations before the switch is laid.  Temporarily place the switch on your roadbed and mark the location of the gap between the head block ties on the ballast board (cork in my case).  Then mark the intersection of the point you just established  and the midpoint of the cork.  "X" marks the spot, take a 3/4" Forstner bit in your drill and drill down through the cork and the blue foam.  Nothing drills holes in cork and foam as neatly as a Forstner bit, don't even try anything else if neatness counts.  Now, take your Stanley Sureform tool (the one you keep only for cork smoothing) and "file" a depression across the switch block which encompasses the diameter of the hole you just milled.  The depression  only has to be deep enough to let you inset a thin piece of plastic sheet stock under the switch to hold the ballast out of the hole and cover it from view.  Take that sheet of plastic and cut a piece which will fit into the depression you filed, and put a slot in it for the switch actuating rod leading up from the Tortoise. Glue down your hole cover over the hole, making sure it is recessed into the depression you filed in the cork.  Glue down your switch (I use Liquid Nails for projects-the Latex stuff). 

Cut a small piece of luan plywood a little bigger than the top of the Tortoise.  Glue this piece of plywood to the bottom of the foam either just ahead of or just behind the hole you made.  Use a hot glue gun, and keep it handy.  Wire your Tortoise to a pigtail which will be connected to a Euro Connectdor block.  Use all the contacts, even if you don't need them now, you may want them later.  The pigtail should be long enough to let you attach the euro connector to a reasonably accessible point on the layout framing.  Make a new actuator wire out  of slightly more robust piano wire than that supplied with the Tortoise.  DO NOT cut the piano wire to to the length you think you will need.  Briskly sand the top of the tortoise with coarse sand paper.  This will help the glue to hold.  Attach the new long actuator to the Tortoise.  Get under the layout, run the actuator wire up through hole you milled, through the slot in your hole cover and through the hole in the middle of your throw bar.  Prop up the Tortoise so you can leave it without having the actuator wire slip out of the throwbar.  Go to the top of the layour, grab the actuator with a hemostat, or a clothes pin, or a small clamp.  Now you can fiddle from below the layout and if you drop the Tortoise, it won't cause you to lose the actuator to throwbar connection.

Back under the layout, apply hot glue liberally to the top of the Tortoise and stick it to the plywood you already glued under the layout.  The Tortoise should be mounted with the throw perpendicular to the track centerline.  Pinning the switch halfway between "thrown" and "straight" and having the actuator rod perpendicular to the Tortoise helps locate the switch machine properly.  The glue will let you "fiddle" a bit with the Tortoise mounting, but the adjustment is not that critical as the Tortoise throw is quite long and forgiving.  Go up to the top of the layout, and cut your actuator rod to length.  Use only a cutter made for piano wire, not your Xuron track cutter.

Hook up power to the Tortoise, and you're good to go.  If you ever have to replace the Tortoise, place a sharp wood chisel at the joint between the Tortiose and the plywood, give a couple of taps, and the Tortoise comes right off, leaving the mounting plate.  If you keep a Tortiose or two on hand with  pigtails attached, you can trade out a Tortoise very quickly, which is handy, since they only go out during operating sessions.

This method of mounting Tortoises was developed by two friends of mine, Chuck Shell and Don Meeker, but they use it on railroads with plywood or chipboard subroadbed.

Jeff Fry-building Tennessee Pass in his basement.