What height for baseboards

[riddler]

Hi everyone

 

I had a small layout in my loft but have been able to add what I wanted to it without adding more baseboards. Well after complaints from my wife that the loft is a mess and she can never get to the cupboards under the eves, and with the constant moaning from me about lack of space she has relented.

 

So I have been given permission to run the baseboards around the edge of the loft, and with it being N gauge will give me huge potential )

 

However, there is one stipulation that I must obey, and that is the layout must be higher enough to allow her to have access to the cupboards underneath which means I must have the layout up at 43 inches. The reason for this height is to allow the underneath pointwork, motors and wires not to get in the way and for someone to accidently catch them and cause damage.

 

So my question is 43 inches, is that to high as I keep looking at it and thinking Hmmmm. With the baseboard that high I still have 5 inches of height to the lowest part of the ceiling

 

regards

[BG John]

If it's for your own use, I think it depends how tall you are, and the nature of the layout. Some layouts need to be seen and operated with a good view from above, while others look great at eye level. If it's too high to work on when you're building it, make sure it's portable enough to set parts of it up lower down when needed.

 

I'm 6'2", and the baseboard height of the layout I'm building at the moment is 45", which is pretty comfortable for me to work on so far, but may need to be lower when I do some jobs on it. It's that height because it sits on bookshelves I built to fit my books. I'm eyeing up the space above it for a future layout, that will have to be designed to be viewed and operated at that height, and easy to lift down and work on, as it will be far too high to build it there.

[riddler]

Hi

 

I'm 5ft 10", so pretty average really. I'm sure it will be fine. I will have plenty of room underneath to work, the baseboard in the eves will no larger than 400mm across and at the far end where height is not a problem they will be 600mm.

I wont have any problem reaching across and I wont be having a fiddle yard either. The plan is to incorporate coach sidings and goods sidings as the fiddle yard.

 

I think it will be fine just trying to convince myself before I start cutting and drilling

[Kris]

43 inches will work fine. I'd be more worried about the lack of height, but some careful sloping of the back scene should help with that. 

[DCB]

Probably the worst problem is getting at the tracks in the angle between baseboard and the roof. so there will inevitably be some wasted space, My loft hidden sidings extend 8" or more beyond the upper level as they follow the roof line down.

if usable space under the baseboards is critical boxing in the bottom of the baseboard with ply or MDF to keep drooping wiring out of the way and stopping point motors from snagging on things can be helpful, you can hinge it for access or make it quick detach.

If layout height gets critical you could try thinning down the baseboard thickness, I once used 2X1 side pieces with 1X1 screwed to the sides so the baseboard top was below the top of the sides. After all we usually have some form of lip on the baseboard to stop our prized stock impacting the floor, so why nit use the framing as a lip.  An extreme example my lift out section was 1 inch thick, 2X1 framing on its side with a groove cut for the MDF trackbed.  I once made a hidden sidings bridge with code 100 rail soldered to PCB

The lift out section was from memory 62" above floor level, I could rest my chin on it and the lowest section of the layout must have been about 54" above the floor so 51" clearance below the lowest part.

In 00 there is no reason why feed wires can't run on the surface, masquerading as point rodding etc but maybe not in N.  Surface mount point motors can operate remotely  through piano wire in tube if necessary

[brianusa]

My tinplate layout is 3' high mainly to accommodate a window at one end.  This requires access so its a round the walls layout with a centre peninsula.  The drawback is of course, a duckunder and aisle width of 20" but being fairly skinny, presents not much of a problem and it allows for a fairly extensive layout.

 

Brian.