Practical Baseboard Sizes (or, How big is too big?)

[Ian J.]

As I am indulging in some academic planning work (i.e. Parkstone Bank), I find myself confronted by the spectre of a question: what is the largest practical single baseboard section size for a large (and I do mean large) portable layout?

 

When I think of what I can lift and carry on my own, I'm inclined to believe that maybe six feet by three feet is the most, though four by two is probably just a tad more workable. This is presuming the boards are made with a lightweight and robust construction method for both frame and any surfacing (i.e. plywood).

 

In terms of working on a board, because the sections would be individually separate they can be rested vertically, so I don't imagine width would be a serious problem. Even then some work would need to be done on the level, so there it comes down to arm reach. I imagine three feet reach from either side of a board would give a practical width of not much more than six feet, maybe seven at a stretch.

 

What other factors constrain board size?

[johnb]

Points to consider:-

 

Doorways, you might have to get you and a board through a single door. 6 x 3 is really, really pushing that, particularly if there is scenery of any height involved.

 

Risk of damage, gets higher the bigger the board.

 

Weight, don't forget that there is all the stuff that you are going to put on that lightweight construction, track, point motors,scenery etc etc etc, it all adds up.

 

Transport requirements, easier with a batch of smaller boards boxed up face to face, to protect scenery.

 

What scale are you using and have you any mates to help shift it?

 

For me when I was younger a single 4 x 2 was the biggest that one person could handle SAFELY when fully finished with exposed scenery. Damage risk was the main consideration. Using a covering protective 'lid' just added weight to move it from the 'just OK' level, to 'oh dear that's hefty!!'

 

If you are considering the single handed assembly of a portable layout, say at home or in the garage, for test purposes then 4x 2 is IMHO about the biggest manageable.

 

I found that 4 x 18ins much more handleable and these days my maximum scenery fitted board size is down to 4ft x 1ft. I have set that size up at shows single handed when my crew ran late. One  OO layout that I showed a number of times had one board at 4ft x 18ins with highish scenery and that was always a pain, the others at 4 x 1 were much better.

 

Anyway that's my thoughts, hope that helps

 

regards

 

John

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

That's a fine summary from John.

 

Were I ever again to be tempted by the thought of an exhibition layout, something I learned at major industrial shows would be the top of my mind. The exhibit should have an integrated transport system delivering four key functions:

Fully enclosed protection in transit,

Wheeled for movement into the show space,

Provides the support structure for the exhibit,

Storage for all the moveable ancilliaries used on the exhibit.

 

In short, wheeled box(es) taken off the vehicle and erected to display the exhibit (nothing returned to the vehicle); at the show end it is packed up for a single move per transport box back onto the vehicle.

[Paul Cram]

The boards for our current layout are 4' x 3' and I wouldn't want them any bigger as they are awkward as they are.

[kevinlms]

Another consideration is the practicality of being able to reach the back, especially to be able to fix derailments. The higher the baseboard off the ground the worse it becomes.

 

I would NEVER consider a baseboard 7ft wide (as per you original post) at all practical, unless your happy about walking on it! This might be OK on a home layout, but hopelessly impractical at an exhibition.

[Ian J.]

Thanks for the replies.

 

For my academic study, I'm not thinking so much for regular exhibition attendance as just for rare appearances, and even then only those where access to the hall/site would be large enough for a very large layout anyway. Certainly I wouldn't be thinking about moving or setting up such a layout as a single person, it would have to be a group task.

 

Being able to protect the scenery is something I'd not fully considered so that will need some thinking, and the height of said scenery, in places, would be quite significant.

 

Re width, if the backscene of a board were made removable in some straightforward/simple way, then it would be possible to reach from both sides of a board, which was why I mentioned seven feet as a maximum. Certainly if the backscene weren't removable, then three feet, maybe three and a half, would be the workable maximum.

[TheQ]

The Biggest I've ever worked with were 8ft by 4ft, we could work on them from both sides and when in their Box frame for transport took 4 or 6 Fit men to shift (it was an RAF MRC layout).

 For single man movement and for ease of working on them I would stick to no more than 4' by 18'', or possibly 3' by 2'.

Getting the Board into a car when putting through a hatch can be a considerable consideration. Often your maximum length is dictated by the width of your Boot remember to measure the Hatch and all sticky out bits as well as the floor area.

The Q

[skipepsi]

My US layout is going to be built on two wardrobe sides currently 6ft 7ins by 23 inches, Having moved them around the house they will be cut down to around 15 inches wide to be manouverable through doorways with low scenery only. Looking at maximum sizes the only advantage is the lack of joints probably the best people to talk to would be the builders of large layouts that are frequently exhibited for optimum sizes. 

[Judge Dread]

4ft X 6ins long by 2ft wide and 2 ft deep are my largest baseboard dimensions. A naked  2ft wide or even 3ft baseboard you could handle (no smutty intentions offered) but when it has scenery on it, your arms are never long enough. I have my trusty barrow to move baseboards to and from my van to the allotted exhibition hall space. These baseboards are in boxes which when vertical, I can lift them into any place alone. I certainly load and unload my van alone. It gives me the bonus of being able to arrive home at some midnight hour and throw the van in my garage and say to it "See you tomorrow after I've had a night's sleep". No more struggling up the club house outside staircase, round the 180 degree turn, in days gone by! 

[Suzie]

4' x 2' is as much as a single person can handle and erect efficiently. Any wider and your arms are not long enough to be able to support it and do up the fixings at the same time. It can be hard to stick to that size because track layout often dictates that wider is required (a five platform station in 00 does not fit in 2' width without compromise) and longer can avoid breaking pointwork across baseboard joins, but if doing this bear in mind that you will need help to erect.

 

Cars are getting ever smaller interiors, the days of being able to stick all of International Underground (half a dozen fully sceniced 4' x 2' baseboards) in the boot of a Volvo 960 are long gone, so you will often have to consider the car boot size very carefully, four baseboards 18" x 5' are more likely to fit into a modern estate car like a Mercedes E-class which might make more sense than the traditional 4' x 2'.

 

Make the baseboards so that you can pack them in pairs, it makes handling a lot easier and offers good protection to the scenery.

[shortliner]

If you are serious about the size 6' x 3'ish - go into the bedroom, take the double mattress of the bed and then walk it around the house and out of the door - then take a door off its hinges and do the same thing with that - I can tell you that you will rapidly change your mind about the size and weight that you can sensibly handle - and remember that it will have a lot of possibility of damage to scenics etc!

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Aft'noon all,

 

The frames for Tor Giffard are 6ft x 2ft...specifically to allow them to travel easily through standard house doorways on a wheeled carrier. The test frame (also 6ft x 2ft) is the one which is regularly manhandled, en-route to/from area group meetings and its size poses no real issues providing that you have planned how/where it is going to be put down.

 

Bear in mind that weight is ok because all TG frames are aluminium.

 

Dave

[Adrian Wintle]

Our roundy-round layout (which is heavily built) has 4 boards that are 8'x3' (as well as 4 of 4'x4' and 4 of 5'x3' - it is 18'x24' when assembled) - they can just be carried by two people, But we need 3-4 to get them on/off the racking in the truck (lorry). It lives in an industrial unit and lodes onto the truck (17' box) via a loading bay.

 

I find the 4'x2' is marginal for moving around the house, narrower saves on scraped knuckles in doorways.

 

Adrian

[Phatbob]

An essential issue is that of fitting the basebords into your transport.  A layout that fits into your own car will always be more popular with exhibition managers than one that requires van hire!  One thing to note; 4'x2' is a popular size as it makes best use of a standard 8x4 sheet, but, the problem with 4' long boards is that they don't fit accross the width of a car, so they have to go in lengthways.  Fitted in lengthways, you could fit in longer boards!  So space is wasted.  Boards of 3' to 3'6" length will fit in sideways and make much better use of the space in your car.  Or fit them in lengthways and go for 4'6" to 5' long boards, depending what fits between the back of the front seats and the tailgate.  Likewise, dropping the width from 2' to say 18" or 20" doesn't impact much on the amout of track and scenery space, but it does make the boards SO much easier to handle and to fit in the car.
HTH,
Bob.

[Gilbert]

4' x 2' is as much as a single person can handle and erect efficiently. Any wider and your arms are not long enough to be able to support it and do up the fixings at the same time. It can be hard to stick to that size because track layout often dictates that wider is required (a five platform station in 00 does not fit in 2' width without compromise) and longer can avoid breaking pointwork across baseboard joins, but if doing this bear in mind that you will need help to erect.

 

Cars are getting ever smaller interiors, the days of being able to stick all of International Underground (half a dozen fully sceniced 4' x 2' baseboards) in the boot of a Volvo 960 are long gone, so you will often have to consider the car boot size very carefully, four baseboards 18" x 5' are more likely to fit into a modern estate car like a Mercedes E-class which might make more sense than the traditional 4' x 2'.

 

Make the baseboards so that you can pack them in pairs, it makes handling a lot easier and offers good protection to the scenery.

 

I think this information is just about spot on. I am swaying towards 3x2 for paired boards nowadays. I would only add that its worth having handles integral to what ever end boards you use to "mate" the pairs of boards face to face.

 

....and "big" estate cars are not always that big - my old Citroen C4 was wider betwen the wheel arches than my new(ish) Passat Estate - that caused a bit of layout packing fun I can tell you...

[Catweasel]

If you are using an estate car or a hatch back, then measure the width between the wheel arches. Boards can then fit across and possibly leave thee rear seat available for bodies. Maximum size for comfort and safety is probably around 4x3 feet. Don't  forget you may have trestles as well.  If you adopt the piggy back system you would have 2 trestles for the first board and one for each subsequent board.Scroll down the page for the design of these trestles. They're brilliant.

http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/Layout%20building.html

[Ian J.]

If you are serious about the size 6' x 3'ish - go into the bedroom, take the double mattress of the bed and then walk it around the house and out of the door - then take a door off its hinges and do the same thing with that - I can tell you that you will rapidly change your mind about the size and weight that you can sensibly handle - and remember that it will have a lot of possibility of damage to scenics etc!

 

In the case of what I have in mind, conventional rooms in a house aren't a factor. But as I have manhandled both big mattresses and doors off their hinges, I can certainly understand where you're coming from.

 

6' x 3' is a figure I settled on as the maximum I could handle in the most simple case. The problem (purely an academic one) that I have is that to go with 4' x 2' or thinner is impractical. Check out the length and width of Parkstone Bank on Google to see just how many 4 x 2 sections would be required to do it...

[Griffin Road]

4 x 2 is just manageable

 

4 x 18" is much easier though .

 

I have a layout with 4 x 2 boards regardless of weight it is still really a two man lift to avoid damage .

 

Another layout uses 4 x 18" boards . It can be moved easily on my own but again a two man lift is better to avoid damage .

 

 

My final layout is about 7' x 16 " - it is just a pain in the backside !!!!!!

 

 

Hope this helps .

 

Mike b

[fender]

my board is 6ft by 18in by 5in and it is certainly light enough for me to manage but hopelessly too large for moving very far or very often, and that's with just the track on it at the moment, no other scenics...

[Kris]

If you want to move things about quickly go for a small board. If you are prepared to move about slowly then bigger boards can be managed. I use 6x2 as a maximum size. I don't move it often or quickly but it is manageable.