Well I managed to find a little time this weekend to spend on the baseboards for the new layout, on Foster Street my other layout I constructed the baseboards with plywood, and as an experiment to create lightweight boards I used glue and pins in the construction.

This led to a very lightweight and strong build, and they seem to have lasted well, but for the new layout boards I reverted to using screws in the construction. and I slightly more engineered approach to each board.

Everything is cut from 6mm marine ply, and is very well glued and screwed during construction, today I had to buy another box of 200 screws and the first box was nearly empty (lightweight baseboards, but very heavy metalwork ). Most of the time today was spent sanding the near finished board down to just tidy up a few edges and remove any risk of splinters, as can be seen from the picture of the underside of the bard construction is very simple (I just need to add a batter on the top left section, its already cut and waiting).

Even with thousands of screws the board is very light and strong, and is easy to manhandle and move about even for a 4ft x 2ft board, god knows how much it would weigh if it was made of chipboard like in the good old days.

My intention was to deign the boards so that they could be "crated" to aid transport to exhibitions (if invited) or just for movement and storage around the house. To make this easier I decided that the back-scene should be an integral part of the construction, so they form part of the baseboard structure and in some places 15 inches for me to provide low relief buildings or painted scenes (oh dear)

The second baseboard should be easier to build, as although it is on two levels like the first the raised section will be at the back of the board, rather than string off in the centre like the first (but in modelling is anything ever simple?). In preparation for this the back-scene board has been marked and made ready for drilling and the cross members have had their supports fitted.

All I need to do now it get the time to put them together and then test the alignment, and then work out the height the layout should be at, but for the moment I will just bask in my smugness, as despite using saws, drills and other sharp tools I still have all my fingers I AM A WOOD WORKING GOD

I kind of like viewing my layouts from eye level, but unless I view the layout kneeling down it may need long legs as I'm six seven tall. I need help on this and am open to any suggestions on what you think would be the best height