I've been spending some thinking about baseboard construction. The overall size will be 4' x 2' and my plan is to use 6mm birch ply with open frame construction for N gauge.
I was with contemplating three 4' longitudinals at 1' spacing and five 2' crossmembers at 1' spacing; now I'm wondering if this too much or not enough.

My other thought is use softwood framing 3" x 1" with 6mm ply trackbed.

I'm not planning on exhibiting or moving it about but it will be freestanding so needs to be substantial enough to do the job but not overly heavy and cumbersome as I may need to move it every now and then.

What are everyones thoughts please

Cheers

Andy 

Hi Andy

Weight is not an issue for me and there is no chance of wanting to move the Yarslow layout so I went with 9mm ply and 3x1 softwood bracing - no gaps between supports greater than 18 inches - 12-15 preferred.  On the open baseboard bits on the branch, I inserted longitudinal bracing under the track bed using 2x1 softwood.

In the past I have used 6mm ply with 2x1 softwood bracing at 12 inch maximum centres and suffered no warping or movement but it did make the boards a bit heavy.  I had 3 4x2 boards crated together for travel and it was about the limit of my lifting abilty!

Barry

Thank you Barry, I'm thinking 3" x 1" softwood framing but with only two longitudinal members but 5 cross members might be the way to go now with 6mm ply trackbed

Andy

Hi Andy,

I build my modules with 6mm Baltic B/BB ply, top, sides, internal bracing at 16" centers. I use internal 1x1" softwood at the interior corners, glued. No metal screws except for the top, 1/4" hardwood dowels.


Nigel

Hi Andy,

One thought is think about the trackplan before finally fixing the cross members, its a b*gger to have one just in exactly the wrong place! I used 6mm ply in N on well dried 2"x1" frames in roughly 1ft squares with I guess legs every 3ft or so and it was fine if a little noisy, so in my now OO layout I have changed to 12mm marine ply top and it seems quite a bit quieter.

Regards
Roger

Hi,
A couple of links to my baseboard construction.

https://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=362&forum_id=21#p1227

The first 4 pages cover most of the base board construction. Post 56 and onwards deals with spline road beds. 

Any questions, please ask. 

Cheers

Marty