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Base Boards part 2

wenlock

Entry posted by wenlock

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Well its been a month since my last blog entry, so I thought it was about time I posted something up! Once the number plates for the Dean Good's turn up I'll post up some pictures of the finished loco. I've been promised delivery by the end of the month, so hopefully not too long a wait!

 

Although not much progress has been made on the modelling front, my modelling room has come on considerably. I've finished skimming and painting the plasterboard walls and laid a laminate floor. It used to feel pretty bleak working in there, but I think once I've got a few railway pictures on the walls it will be a nice place to be!

 

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I've been working on the off stage part of the layout, building a train turntable type of fiddle yard. The outside frame of the fiddle yard board was built in a similar fashion to the other 3 main boards, using the MDF beam method. A piece of 9mm MDF was cut to fit accross the width of the frame work and the center was marked.

 

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I wanted to use a "Lazy Susan" type bearing to support the train turntable which at 1400 mm long would need a fair bit of support. The bearings come in a variety of sizes, the one I've used is 300mm diameter.

 

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Once the bearing had been fixed in position, the supporting piece of MDF was fitted to the baseboard framework.

 

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The underside of the bearing support was strengthened by the addition of MDF beams.

 

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A piece of 9mm thick MDF was cut to form the train turntable top, each end was radiused and then fitted on top of the Lazy Susan bearing. Feeling pretty pleased with myself I rotated the fiddle yard expecting in to swing right round, which it did until it hit the workshop wall! This most definetely wasn't part of the plan. Originally the layout was going to be 4' 6" deep, but I decided that in retrospect even my long arms wouldn't reach the back of the layout. I consequently built the baseboards to the reduced width of 4 feet. What I hadn't considered was the fact that the fiddle yard was still 4'6" inches long and so when spun round, stuck out 3 inches either side of the layout! This obviously required a bit of a rethink.

 

After a bit of head scratching I decided I could either move the whole layout 3 inches forward away from the wall, or to change the pivot point on the fiddle yard. I decided moving the entire layout solution was a bit of a cop out, so went for the changing the pivot point option. Luckily it was possible to bring the paper trackwork template forward by 3 inches on the baseboards, so I could still maintain alignment with the turntable. The Lazy Susan was repositioned on it's supporting board and then the turntable was put back in place. This time when I spun the turntable it was possible for it to do a full rotation without clouting the wall.

 

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I've added additional support under the main layout boards using more MDF beams, which will hopefully minimise any distortion during the rest of the layouts consruction.

 

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The last picture shows the state of play in the workshop so far. I'm planning on tackling the back scene and fascia boards next.

 

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In past layouts before laying the track I've always glued cork floor tiles to the base boards using Copydex glue. Although I've found this method succesful, I'm wondering if there are any other methods that people have used to provide a resilient track bed?

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold
Barry Ten
  • RMweb Gold

I've also heard of people stapling down cork floor tiles rather than gluing them, the idea being that you can strip the whole lot off at some point in the future with little or no damage to the baseboard surface. I'm a convert to Copydex myself though.

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nigelb

Dave could i suggest that as the turntable appears to be the end of that base board you may have slight issues lining the  tracks up  perhaps a fixed board where the turntable finishes may help alignment ..... hope that makes sense

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  • RMweb Gold
wenlock
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Nigel, the turntable only has to align with the main line (center road in the last picture) and the yard (left road in last picture). The line on the right is just a spur leading from the double slip into some buffers. I've checked all the alignments and all is well!

 

Thanks for your concern though, I'd much rather resolve any problems at this early stage rather than when it's too late.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Premium
PaternosterRow
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Just so neat.  Wish my loft looked as tidy as that.  Beautiful workmanship and can't wait to see this develop.   

 

Mike

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KH1
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I bet there were some choice words there!

 

Very nice baseboards.

 

I have used 5mm foam board very successfully but other options are camping mat or laminate floor underlay. All these options give much better sound insulation than cork and are pretty cheap.

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  • RMweb Gold
wenlock
  • RMweb Gold

 

Just so neat.  Wish my loft looked as tidy as that.  Beautiful workmanship and can't wait to see this develop.   

 

Mike

Cant imagine it staying this neat for long I'm afraid! Glad you're looking forward to seeing it progress

 

 

Looks mighty impressive. How long is the whole thing?

Hi N15, The layout is 5320mm long in total, or near as damm it 17 foot six inches in good old imperial!

 

 

I bet there were some choice words there!

 

Very nice baseboards.

 

I have used 5mm foam board very successfully but other options are camping mat or laminate floor underlay. All these options give much better sound insulation than cork and are pretty cheap.

 

Yep, "choice words" sums it up, definitely not my finest hour! Laminate floor underlay sounds like a good idea, Ive got part of a roll left from laying the floor. Will copydex stick it to the base boards ok, or is there a better adhesive to use?

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold
Donw
  • RMweb Gold

When deciding what to put under the track there is a trade off in rigidity, sound insulation and resilience. Laminate underlay of the foam kind is nice but will not hold the track so if used under curved sections it will not stop doglegs forming so the track will need pinning which will then transmit noise.

Thin balsa sheet is quite good you can glue it to the base and glue the track to it.

Don

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  • RMweb Gold
wenlock
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Donw, thanks for that, I hadnt thought about the track loosing alignment on curved sections. Balsa sounds like it might be a good option, I think some experimentation's in order!

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold
Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Dave, good to see progress. Out of interest, will there be something to guide alignment of the tracks? 

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  • RMweb Gold
wenlock
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Mikkel , I'm planning on using some square section bolts to align the tracks and carry power from the main layout to the fiddle yard. It worked on a previous 4mm layout that I built about 20 years ago called Lesser Wenlock, lets hope it works on this one!

 

Dave

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Miss Prism

Dave - I do wonder whether there is a danger of the turntable top warping. If it warps downward at the arc faces, that isn't so much of a problem, because the support at the edge of the board will keep it in reasonable horizontal alignment with the layout tracks. But if it warps upward, there could be a problem. It might help if the turntable had sides.

 

I suggest get your locking bolts in place and working before laying any track interfaces.

 

Btw, I use PVA for attaching cork to wood, but I doubt there's much difference between Copydex.

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wenlock
  • RMweb Gold

 

Dave - I do wonder whether there is a danger of the turntable top warping. If it warps downward at the arc faces, that isn't so much of a problem, because the support at the edge of the board will keep it in reasonable horizontal alignment with the layout tracks. But if it warps upward, there could be a problem. It might help if the turntable had sides.

 

I suggest get your locking bolts in place and working before laying any track interfaces.

 

Btw, I use PVA for attaching cork to wood, but I doubt there's much difference between Copydex.

Hi Miss P, I've only just noticed your post! I hadn't considered the turntable warping upwards, so I'm really glad you've pointed it out. Working on the principle that "If it can happen, then it will happen" some additional bracing is definetly in order. I was planing on puting sides on the turntable to protect the stock, but this as you say should have the additional benifit of reducing the chance of warping.

 

Dave

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