Baseboard Basics

[10800]

 

I still reckon its quite an uneven and inconsistent surface even after sanding/skimming or similar, fine maybe for the coarser scales but could be quite rough on the EM and P4s of UK equipment.

 

 

I think I might be tempted to have a thin ply minimum width trackbed rather than lay track direct to the foam.

[Russ (mines a pint)]

I never understand why (well I do because I've made the mistake myself ) folk skimp on the baseboard design and structure. You are going to put lots of hours of your time and effort into laying superb trackwork and building your layout. Maybe even transporting around the country to shows and yet we skimp and begrudge spending a few quid on quality material for the basic structure.

 

In some ways I do totally agree with you, particularly if its a model thats going to become your lifes work, however mine never do and my plans ofte tend to be transient and I very rarely get beyond tracklaying stage- and thats on a good day! - because I keep changing my mind nearly as often as I change my socks I dont put too much time or investment into baseboards and try knock them up out of anything knocking about! The Deadwater layout however did prove to me it was worth doing a half decent job of at least thee scenic boards.

[peach james]

I've used 3/4" , furniture grade but seconds (damaged) ply for Long Marton. The frames are 6' by 3', with a pair of cross members & the remainder being open frame. IIRC, it is all 4" deep, with a 2" deep T insert of the same plywood running on each strip. On top of this, is foam. This is the hard cell foam, as other people have posted about. I found it flat enough, but indifferent in places- given the chance, I will end up relaying the track, I think, but it is workable in OO. That's probably more due to my indifferent tracklaying skills than any natural lack of flatness in the foam. I would suspect that if you took a piece of the 1" board & ran it out as a single length, it would form a similarly flat surface as plywood, laid flat.

 

To give an idea as to how much wood I cut, from the sheet of plywood, I had a garbage (40L) bag of cuttings. There was a LOT of cut-offs that I ended up with. Tools used were a reasonable table saw and a brand spanking new 80T carbide plywood blade, as well as a set of rabbit cutters for the notches.

 

Previous to this, I had box frames made from 1"x4" (.75 by 3.5" actual) wood. They warped. Some up to 1/2" in 3 ft. Not fit for purpose. I have other layouts built on similar structure, and find they are quite a lot more suseptable to quality of wood problems. Plywood is more stable (I find) than real wood, because it is a laminated product. However, expect that it will take more time to make whatever setup you are making vs using real wood. Given adaquate bracing and reasonable lengths, regular wood with a solid plywood top seems to be reasonably good at not warping into a pretzled surface. (that's using 1x4 sides, on a 1/2" top, with 1x2 forming a L frame to the 1x4- seePNLTC table for details)

 

The other alternative I investigated was aluminum frames. I had intended to make the scenery using foam, having done so on my last 2 layouts. It does need supporting at around 18" OC in order to prevent excessive sag. Aluminum frames would have meant no problems with humidity changes, but still leave open the possibility of problems from thermal expansion. They would also be fairly pricy, but as posted elsewere, if you value your time out, the baseboards being cheaped on is a real waste.

 

James