Well I picked up Templot surprisingly quickly, more by trial and error than actually sitting down and learning the thing! After a few days I managed to come up with this track plan.

Happy with it, baseboards were planned out and I went off to buy some plywood. At this point I was three weeks into the project so my initial target to start building boards by the end of March had been met.

The scenic area will be split into two baseboards. Board 1 will be 5' 8" and contains the more open area to the left and board 2 is 2'6" and has the two bridges and cutting to the right. I'm going for a light weight design so 6mm ply will be used to build both the frame and top. The frame will be between 75mm and 150mm deep depending on the terrain. The cutting to the right of the model will be formed later using foam insulation or similar, building up from track level.

First up was the smaller board 2. I'd got the ply sheet cut into 150mm wide strips and these were cut down as required. Circular holes were cut into the cross members and diagonals to keep the structure light and allow easy cable access. 38x38mm softwood battens were screwed and glued to each end of the cross members and the assembled cross members were then glued and screwed to the sides before the diagonals were glued in place ready for the tops. Even before I'd fixed the top, the structure is square and very rigid so I'm happy with my chosen design and ready to move on to the larger board 1.

This board features an embankment, underbridge and coal drops to the left so the sides and cross members had to be cut to suit. Mistake number one - I'd gone gung ho with my circular holes and on the last board found that I'd created the hole through the cross section of the embankment - not the end of the world but annoying nonetheless.

Progress for board 1 was slower than I would have liked due to family commitments and only being able to work within the limited confines of the shed due to the generally pretty awful weather we've had. However, the board was eventually assembled and the tops glued and screwed in place. Some baseboard alignment dowels arrived from C&L and the two boards have been successfully aligned and joined with bolts. We are now up to date with proceedings. The next job will be to seal the boards with varnish.