After the start with the beams last weekend, this weekend saw the assembly stage, the beams where glued and screwed together to form a framework and the trackbed baseboard glued and stapled to the structure.

It wasn't laying very flat, so I came up with a different way to use the workmate, a cast iron patio umbrella base and some floor tiles. Not how these items were designed to be used, but it gave me plenty of weight to hold it down. It will at least be as flat as the block paved section of the back garden. It was left like this for the rest of the day for the glue to dry and hopefully hold it in this position.

Next day, with the glue dry I had a flat, reasonably stiff structure. Today (Sunday) it was just a case of adding the riverbed board, some diagonal beams to help stiffen it more and the river edge strip. The diagonal members are a single piece of 4mm ply glued at the ends and along the length, one is attached between the end beams and the next beam in. The centre section will get a diagonal as soon as I am sure it will not get in the way of the servos I will be using as point motors.

The last thing to attach was a strip of 4mm ply to form the river bank, or at least the base for the wharf and the scenic section.

The picture below is what it looks like this morning with the glue dry and the masking tape that held it together removed.

There is still a little bit of flexing in the board, but some of the joints need a little more glue and there is an extra diagonal to add. I think it is going to be good enough for my purposes, and above all it is still very light. Just what I need to lift it up into the loft. I tried to weigh it, but the bathroom scales would not register it, which means it is less than 1Kg (2.2 lbs to you and me). Today will see a trial run to make sure I measured things correctly and it will actually fit. I am sure my wife will be glad to be rid of it in the kitchen!