Old School baseboard construction

Hi All,

I was the designated "Greeter" at a layout open house our local NMRA division held yesterday. This layout is a work in progress, and is 100% "old school" open frame construction, built to withstand major earthquakes and rock-steady. You could go clog dancing on the top of it. Around 13 x 26 feet, multilevel.

I'm posting some photos I took before manning the door, indifferent quality, but for those unfamiliar with open frame construction this is how it is done. Open frame pine construction at the bottom, elevated track bed constructed of cabinet-grade 3/4" birch ply on risers, topped with a layer of 1/2" homasote. This is a compressed cellulose material, much used in the construction world here, it will take screws and pins/spikes, glues easily with PVA, and is a good sound insulator. Note its use as track bed. You will see old pine, the owner took it all apart and rebuilt it just for the open house and conversion to DCC from DC. Definitely not modular.

Nigel

Its been a little while since you posted these pics Nigel, but thank you! Perfect for a newbie like me, as I full intend to use the open frame methodology. In my case though, I will need to be able to easily dismantle the frames and track beds as my initial layout location will not be the final location. Thanks again, Andrew

Nice work Nigel. No pictures of the clog dancers then......

Andrew how about making it sectional and mount it on heavy duty casters ?  We did this with kitchen unit carcases to make a temporary counter to close of a warehouse entrance so members of the public could see in during sales, but not enter. The units simply bolted together and wheels locked to stop it moving. If your layouts new home is on the same level as your old one then this idea might work ?
Cheers

Matt

Thanks fr the suggestion, Matt,

I have used this concept before for mobile benchwork in my shed. The shed is a little cramped, so I am able to move heavy(ish) tools in and out of the space as required, so this is something I will definitely be considering.

I built Newcastle Emlyn on an open frame L-girder base… and I do climb around on top of it.
Great if you want landscaping to go down … as well as up.

I would always go for open frame baseboards - except in track-heavy urban areas and large-ish stations.

My current layout was basically bought "as is" but, as most of it was track covered, open top wouldn't really have worked.

The timberwork shown in Nigel's shots would probably carry the full sized trackwork !!  I used 75mm x 25mm for the main frames. The risers were cut from whatever I had kicking around - usually something like 10mm ply and the track bed was cork covered 10mm ply.  The main problem I had was the amount of ply waste.  Cutting a long curve from a piece of recatngular timber leaves a large, odd shaped piece of waste ply.   It might be worth drawing your cutting list onto a plan first to aboid so much waste - ply here isn't cheap !!

A basic thing I learned in Tiling when I 'Aprenticed' ( Free slave labour) Peter,. Cut big pieces first, then if you B0@@£r it up, use it to do a smaller cut, if you B0@@£r. THAT up use it to do a . . You get the picture 
Cheers

Matt

Excellent advice Matt.  :thumbs

I started out with an 8x4 sheet and ended up with a barrow crossing ………………………….

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

I would always go for open frame baseboards - except in track-heavy urban areas and large-ish stations.

My current layout was basically bought "as is" but, as most of it was track covered, open top wouldn't really have worked.

The timberwork shown in Nigel's shots would probably carry the full sized trackwork !!  I used 75mm x 25mm for the main frames. The risers were cut from whatever I had kicking around - usually something like 10mm ply and the track bed was cork covered 10mm ply.  The main problem I had was the amount of ply waste.  Cutting a long curve from a piece of recatngular timber leaves a large, odd shaped piece of waste ply.   It might be worth drawing your cutting list onto a plan first to aboid so much waste - ply here isn't cheap !!

Thanks Peter,
Agree, ply is not that cheap here in Aus either. I will head off to Bunnings (one of our hardware chains) and assess dressed pine for the frame, I am considering 64mm x 19mm. 19mm seems to be a "standard" thickness, but as the perimeter of each frame will be "laminated" so to speak (38mm), I think there will be plenty of strength. The real trick is to find "straight" lengths" of timber. For the deck its self, I will go with 9mm ply. Can't go with anything thicker as it will mess with my clearances and slopes.

Regards, Andrew

LOL

One general question, for the track intensive sections of the  layout, like a station, should I secure the boards as "simple" ply  sheets direct to the frame/risers, or would it be better to create a board on a  frame that "sits" on top of the risers? i.e. make the frame work and  the large tops as separately moveable pieces, rather than single frame  and top units. The advantage I see to the separated approach is the  ability to lift a board off the layout for easier access from below both  during construction and subsequent maintenance/modification.
Early  next week I hope to be able to upload my Anyrail plan that will contain  the frame work plan. I am happy to share the native Anyrail files as  well, if that is possible?

Andrew personally I think  however you do it, having the ability to remove or at the very least upend a track heavy section to work on the wiring underneath would  DEFINITELY be an advantage  :thumbs
This may also help when you end up moving the layout to it's permanent home as well so yes, having separate, braced tops that you can lift off WOULD be good. Also aranging to be able to separate wiring looms at the board  joints from the start will make this task so much easier ?  Each board could have all electrickery for that section mounted on it so you can just unplug and lift away without major surgery  :hmm

Cheers

Matt

[user=2080]Barchester[/user] wrote:

Andrew personally I think  however you do it, having the ability to remove or at the very least upend a track heavy section to work on the wiring underneath would  DEFINITELY be an advantage  :thumbs
This may also help when you end up moving the layout to it's permanent home as well so yes, having separate, braced tops that you can lift off WOULD be good. Also aranging to be able to separate wiring looms at the board  joints from the start will make this task so much easier ?  Each board could have all electrickery for that section mounted on it so you can just unplug and lift away without major surgery  :hmm

Cheers

Matt

Brilliant, thanks Matt.

Matt is right Andrew.  Access to the underside of your boards is very important - all the electrickery is under there including your wiring, point motors, detectors etc much of which will probably end up being installed after the track is down.


 One other thing to think about is the height of your baseboard.  Most in UK are too low - I say in UK because in the States, they appear to go for much higher boards - around chest height.  This makes access underneath much easier and has the additional advantage of allowing "eye level" viewing of your trains - the viewpoint you'd have for the real thing.

[user=2199]Andrewdonald[/user] wrote:

"One general question, for the track intensive sections of the layout, like a station, should I secure the boards as "simple" ply sheets direct to the frame/risers, or would it be better to create a board on a frame that "sits" on top of the risers? i.e. make the frame work and the large tops as separately moveable pieces, rather than single frame and top units. The advantage I see to the separated approach is the ability to lift a board off the layout for easier access from below both during construction and subsequent maintenance/modification.


That is the way I am trying to do it. Makes the electical wiring so much easier. 

I think my board is 20 MDF.

An exampe here.

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=362&forum_id=21&page=78#p265275

cheers

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

[user=2199]Andrewdonald[/user] wrote:

"One general question, for the track intensive sections of the layout, like a station, should I secure the boards as "simple" ply sheets direct to the frame/risers, or would it be better to create a board on a frame that "sits" on top of the risers? i.e. make the frame work and the large tops as separately moveable pieces, rather than single frame and top units. The advantage I see to the separated approach is the ability to lift a board off the layout for easier access from below both during construction and subsequent maintenance/modification.


That is the way I am trying to do it. Makes the electical wiring so much easier. 

I think my board is 20 MDF.

An exampe here.

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=362&forum_id=21&page=78#p265275

cheers

 

Brilliant Marty,

Thanks for the excellent pointers. :doublethumb