Creative thinking required for unintended baseboard gap

[ITG]

I’m at the early stages of building a 3.5m x 2m OO layout, using modular laser cut boards. It’s basically 600mm wide boards around the room, apart from one corner diagonal board to allow for door access. Track is down and wired, testing/running underway etc. But I didn’t allow for a room that wasn’t quite square! As a result, I have gained a small gap between two boards at one end of the layout. Across that 600mm board, it’s approx 10mm at the wall edge, widening to some 20mm at the near edge of the board (Alongside operating well).

Now, it’s small enough to cover over scenically, and luckily it is the 10mm end which has double tracks running over it, so easy to disguise. But, I’m wondering if I can make use of it, maybe as a drainage ditch or whatever. Obviously, at the wide end it’s only a scale 5 feet wide, so not really enough for a canal, and it is very straight sided so cannot be a meandering brook.
 

Any ideas of what kind of feature it could be, maybe other than a drainage ditch? Or suggestions as to how to make it look right as said ditch?

[eastglosmog]

If your local land is flat, you could try modelling a water meadow.  Many drainage ditches are dead straight, so no problem there.  You would need a low access bridge over it and the edges to be chamfered  and crumbled a bit.  They would also normally be of constant width, so a triangular fillet of wood down one side to keep a constant width.  A sluice gate or two could be included. See attached photos.

A mill leat would be another possibility for a straight channel.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photos

[Ron Ron Ron]

The narrow, wedge shaped and straight sided gap does rather limit the scope of what might look convincing, so how about thinking out of the box.

Rather than creating something below the board level, like a water course of some description; what about something above board level, such as a road bridge, viaduct or aqueduct. 
Alternately..... 
a. large buildings, a mill or if a rural scene, some farm buildings, built on a small plinth that can be placed across the gap, with the plinth edges covered and camouflaged.
b. use trees to form a woodland area covering the gap.

 

 

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[PatB]

In an old RM (I think) there was a short article and a couple of photos of an unusual culvert. A stream ran between two closely spaced walls. There was no bridge, as such, carrying any part of the track. The gap was simply arranged in the space between two  sleepers. Dead simple to model, and an unusual but prototypical feature. 

 

IIRC the photos looked to be of a single track branch, rather than a main line, but a bit of modellers licence would cover that. 

[Phil Traxson]

Surely the simple answer is a tapered packer between the boards, maybe just glued to one of them if they may need to be separated at some point. As it is only a gap filler and needs no mechanical strength it can be of almost any material that is lying around, wood, plastic or even cardboard. Some times we over think these things, been there done that!

[Guy Rixon]

If you really want a water course, how about a mill leat? They were often straight with vertical sides, and may be either steep, earth banks or faced in stone. The depth from bank to water level can be anything from inches to a couple of metres, spending on what level is needed at the mill. Surrounding buildings may be built right up to a leat, such that the side of the leat is a continuation of the wall of the buildings.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

It could quite simply be an abandoned MOD culvert, that once had a 'pipe' in it supplying station Z with stuff you aren't ever going to know about...

[Stubby47]

A cameo scene laying a new sewerage or gas pipe line ?

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

[cypherman]

Hi all,

If you have room for it. A water mill would be a nice feature and the gap could be the millrace to power the millwheel. Something like this,

http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/56814/44-0076-Bachmann-Scenecraft-Watermill

 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by cypherman

[ITG]

Thanks all - some great ideas there. I like the idea of linking it (the scenic treatment of my gap) to a surrounding feature, such as the gas pipe laying diorama, or the water mill, etc. I’m not yet at the stage of needing to decide, but as always, it does pay to think ahead about how everything links together.

Meanwhile, a million other things to ponder.....

[doilum]

8 hours ago, PatB said:

In an old RM (I think) there was a short article and a couple of photos of an unusual culvert. A stream ran between two closely spaced walls. There was no bridge, as such, carrying any part of the track. The gap was simply arranged in the space between two  sleepers. Dead simple to model, and an unusual but prototypical feature. 

 

IIRC the photos looked to be of a single track branch, rather than a main line, but a bit of modellers licence would cover that. 

On Houghton Street the stream disappears into a culvert.