Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 For last Christmas my inlaws presented me with a rather charming Marklin Z-gauge Christmas railway set. I had been toying with the idea of making a scenic baseboard to run it on but due to my usual indolence hadn't actually got around to doing anything about it. I was spurred into action recently when SWMBO announced that she would like to see it running as two friends were coming to see us, both of whom are railway buffs. What could I do with 3 or 4 days to spare! I will outline the gory details in a series of posts. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 Hmmmm. The oval of track supplied was a little under 52 cm along the long axis and a little under 40 cm along the short axis. Was there a short cut which would avoid carpentry related angst? the I remembered seeing some plain wooden trays in one of our local 'The Works', a chain of shops selling books, stationary and art/craft materials. These were about 26.5 cm by 40 cm. Bingo! So I bought two. Normally they are £7 each but they were on 1/2 price special offer so they came in at £7 for the pair. So far so good. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 To keep things simple and as the display is was just meant to be temporary for this Christmas I decided to see if I could get away with just bolting them together. I marked out three equidistant points in the short side of one of the trays and drilled holes to match some small bolts. Then I married the trays together to make matching marks in the second tray. These were then drilled to a lightly larger diameter than the first set so as to allow some 'play' when bolting the two trays together. This advisable as one was a couple of mm deeper than the other. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 Thence came the bolting. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 SWMBO then painted the top with one coat of white emulsion which I thought gave an effect of drifting snow. Then I placed the oval of track on it. Whoops! Er, erm, measure twice, buy trays once! It was a bit tighter than I had figured. However I decided I could just about get away with it. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 Decoration now commenced. I bought from a local pound shop a polar bear, a santa, an ice palace and a snow covered house. From 'The Works' were obtained a packet of little wooden Christmas trees whch SWMBO very kindly painted. She also had the genius idea of putting some strips made from Christmas napkins around the edge of the baseboard. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 (edited) The final touch was to surround the board with some cheap coloured lights. All aboard the Polar Express! And with one bound he was free! Edited December 13, 2022 by Will Crompton 13 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Sweet pea Posted December 13, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 13, 2022 A super little festive layout.👍 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Crompton Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 1 hour ago, Kevin Johnson said: A super little festive layout.👍 Many thanks. my main purpose in posting the aboove is to alert people to the rather useful trays from The Works. I might obtain some more for dioramas etc. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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