looking for some ideas

[FCIN]

You could do things like lightly sanding places in the foam to make slight depressions in the ground and in other areas, build up the terrain just a little with some plaster; just enough here and there so the area doesn't look completely flat. Then as Mike suggested, add some real earth, even very fine sand over all that to give it some texture and then plant weeds and grass.

On my own switching layout (if I ever settle on a final track arrangement), I plan on carving out drainage ditches along each side of the main switching lead - just deep enough to give the effect of that being the main track and giving the appearance of there being roadbed. Industry tracks will vary from having very little ballast to some with ties down in the earth or in at least one case, the track will be in pavement.

As for painting the base foam, I had my local paint dealer mix up a quart of flat interior latex paint matched to Floquil earth color and it looks just right. I had tried to use a darker brown, but it looked much too dark, although it would look okay for areas that might be wet from rain, etc.

Look at some of the layouts constructed or under construction on Big Blue and you'll see all sorts of neat ideas. One of the most effective, is to have grass and weeds growing up in the track and next to structures.

Just my little ideas.