Lowland Track

I poked holes through the foam and threaded the power wires from the track through then attached them to a Radio Shack 1/8-inch phone jack.

I placed the lowland foam onto the vinyl floor in my office, then pulled off a double strip of Ace 3/16-inch Rope Caulk Weatherstrip long enough to fit under the track. Rather than pressing it down and beveling it, as I did with the Birthday Layout, I just put it under the track and pressed everything down.  Because it's a winter scene, and there will be snow, I'm not going to bother with the ballast.

After getting the track and roadbed down firmly, I cut single strips of the caulk long enough to go across the highway and sidewalks. I put them down on each side of the track and beveled them from the top of the track to the highway and sidewalk to make a crossing.  Another piece of calk about the same length was cut, then cut in half (lengthwise).  Each of these strips was spread out between the tracks at the crossing.

I placed the lowlands back into the suitcase, attached the phone jack with the electrical leads in place, then ran the Z scale Marklin Schienenreinigungswagen (track-cleaning car) around the track for a while since the track has been out and exposed to the air for quite some time.  I then put my Denver & Rio Grande Western steam engine pulling the Marklin gondola track cleaner car on the track.  I moistened the pad of the gondola with a little anhydrous isopropyl alcohol.  At first the train tended to slow down or stop each time it got to the half-inch length of straight track at each end of the loop.  Eventually it got so that it ran fine even at slow speed.