Base board material

Sundella used to be the recomended thing but I have never seen it anywhere and haven't a clue if its even produced or available anymore..

I used 6mm MDF and then laid cork floor tiles on top of that. It made a good strong baseboard the only problem is that the MDF is fairly hard and you have to use quite a bit of force to get the track pins in. It was nice and quiet until I balasted the track using the old PVA glue route, I'm using matte medium next time. Other than that it works really well and is cheap.

The other old recomendation used to be isulation board but I tried that and found it to be too soft. The track pins went in easily but would come out easily too. I found that the top was also very succeptable to damage. It was quet running but I had foam underlay under the track and it was back in my N gauge days.

Hope this helps....

Chris Packman

Railway pictures website

Plywood. Proper plywood, which is alternating thin layers of dark/light birch, not the rubbish full-of-filler red-cored stuff which 99% of retail outlets sell.

Constructed into a 3-D structure, where the interlocking parts prevent warp and twist in all directions. Result is light, very very strong, and very robust. 4mm or 6mm thick board is more than adequate.

Not cheap, but works.

Or, you can make heavy, cumbersome warp-prone things from MDF, chipboard and

- Nigel

Sundeala can still be obtained

On 29/01/2007 17:16, James Waterfall said,

Plywood, with a cork underlay. I don't mean 3/4" ply supported on 2x1, but a proper egg-box construction made from 6mm ply, which will be light and never warp.

Also, don't ballast your track with granite chippings soaked in PVA - you might as well use concrete :-)

In message , James Waterfall writes

Plywood, particularly Latvian (i.e. not the rubbish you get from the DIY supermarkets).

what do you recommend instead?

neil.

On 29/01/2007 19:25, mumbles said,

Ah - forgot that bit! The last time I ballasted, I did the "granite and PVA" stuff, and that neatly removed any sound-deadening. I tried a little test length with cork granules and a latex-based glue (dilute Copydex, IIRC), which stays rubbery - you can squish it about still when it's set!

Paul Boyd wrote in news:45be6682$0$27109$db0fefd9 @news.zen.co.uk:

I was thinking of going down the same route but when I asked last year it was suggested that using copydex would leave your layout room smelling like something that cat was sick in.

"James Waterfall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

Depends on where your layout is going to be, whether it's perminantly laid out or has to be taken down, moved around a bit and so forth.

As for me, 1/2"MDF over a softwood frame is my choice - used in a garage, half open to the elements, hasn't warped over two winters (so I doubt it will start now) and strong enough to climb on.

On 29/01/2007 22:19, Chris Wilson said,

LOL! Yes, Copydex does have an, er, distinctive smell, but it does wear off! Either that, or you get used to it, which I think is worse :-)

There are other latex glues though. In the USA Champ Decals supply one. I don't know where they get it from, but putting a "model railroad" label bumps up their mark up.

Jim,

Whatever you do, do NOT use Sundeala UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. It is awful stuff, only suitable for the job it is designed (picture boards). It readily absorbs atmospheric water and warps at rates Captain Kirk would be proud of. Despite the fact that a certain print magazine pushes the stuff, it really is not a suitable material for model railway baseboards. I suspect the reason that it is promoted is because of its property of readily accepting track pins - something I wouldn't use either. If you glue track down and ballast it, then this property is not on its own sufficient to justify this awful material. Proponents of Sundeala will say that you can get acceptable results if you seal it before use and brace it with extra supporting timbers. By the time you have gone to all this effort, your costs are such that other materials would be more cost effective and involve less carpentry - both factors used to falsely justify Sundeala. I'm sorry to sound so negative about this product, but I have seen several layouts ruined by this stuff, principally because it curls at the edges and sinks in the middle.

I used fibre insulation board myself on one layout. Same advice as Sundeala except that this stuff is even worse. I do however, use it for scenery/contour supports these days where it works well supprting chicken wire and plaster/newspaper.

MDF is OK but if your layout is portable, it can be very heavy. Do make sure you seal it otherwise its surface blisters with moisture.

Some people use the chipboard and 2x1 tried and tested method. This also works well but 2x1 may be a bit small for larger boards. Chipboard can also be heavy. You will need to use a cork surface, although I made the mistake of using fibre insulation board.

I would strongly recommend the use of good quality ply. Personally, I use 12mm ply. It does not suffer any of the drawbacks of materials above. Some people use 9mm ply. If you are one of the 'track pin brigade' you can lay ordinary cork floor tiles on the surface, (shiney side down) glued with PVA. I use cork, primarily because it helps in shaping ballast shoulders, but I don't use pins.

Graham Plowman

Mixing washing-up liquid into watered down PVA has the same effect.

Graham Plowman

I prefer the victorian engineering approach of 19mm flooring (T & G ) which enables me to dig holes, build up, down and round it and also crawl over it ( my arms continue to get shorter ). Most of the base surface is mounted on 4mm felt rectangles designed for sub parquet floor sound proofing. Elevated sections run on 11mm chip board or flake board and manage a sound effect like an overbridge. Embankements being underfilled with a plaster / papier maché mix so that a sound change occurs. I use paper adhesive lightly diluted and coarse sand as ballast followed by a wash of acrylic paint ( black with white to suit differing colour choices). The peco wood type ties can be wiped off with a damp cloth to become nicely dulled. Staining in loco stand sites can be achieved with rather blacker versions of the same . I have not worked out how to repro the carriage sanitary discharge arrangements yet!

"Peter Abraham" wrote . I have not worked out how to repro the carriage sanitary discharge arrangements yet!

Same way as the real thing ? Small bits of wet tissue ? (Probably dry in PVA glue)

I wouldn't model the pooh !

Andy

Andy Sollis CVMRD said the following on 30/01/2007 10:13:

Well, you could use used bog roll :-)

(Ducks and runs!)

Well , I wore enough of the stuff in my early submarine life and subsequently with Wessex Water ( the brown section) but modelling the scale of the paper and tomato pips is difficult!

The fibre insulation boards sold for use beneath laminate flooring can be used on top of a thin ply or MDF layer for support. The track pins go through the fibre board and into the ply just far enough to hold them in place but not so far that they're a bugger to get in.

MBQ

I have to disagree.

It really depends upon the nature of the layout. As a teenager (70s) I built a folddown 6' x 3' N gauge layout in my bedroom using Sundeala and softwood. It withstood the regular stresses of being folded up and down whilst holding only one corner, and was light enough for one person to do so, for a number of years until I finally left home. It survived for 25 years until I finally dismantled it as the family home was to be sold.

MBQ