Baseboard Materials

What are the preferred materials for baseboard construction? I will shortly begin building an 11ftx11ft layout with a central area approx

4ftx2ft. This will be in my loft. It will be semi permanent, i.e. I will make it such that I can get it out of the loft if I sell the house but it wont be exactly like an exhibition layout as I am only likely to move it once. I want to make it in nominal 4ftx2ft boards but may vary this depending on what will go through the hatch etc. I want to use mdf board as it will be easier to lay track. I know plywood is preferred but I don't want to drill holes for the track pins.Is half inch mdf ok or should it be thicker? My main question is regarding the frame. Would ordinary planed softwood be sufficient or would the shrinkage with age and temperature cause problems? What alternatives can I use. The club I joined are building an exhibition layout using an mdf frame. I assume that this has been sawn from a sheet with a circular saw. Can anybody tell me what they have used and how successful or unsuccessful it was.

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Rayner
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In message , Kevin Rayner writes

Don't know about anyone else, but I've never had to drill plywood for track pins, armed with a suitable hammer, they'll go straight in. Either way, you'll have to get the drill out to make holes in the sleepers for them. (AFAIK only set-track has the holes pre-drilled).

Reply to
Spyke

In message , Spyke writes

Hornby flexible and semi-flexible track also has holes for track pins.

You will find that baseboards made of MDF weigh the proverbial ton. Also MDF is "dimensionally unstable" when damp.

Reply to
John Sullivan

You may want to consider the weight of MDF before you stick it in your roofspace. It's significantly heavier than most other board material.

Pete

Reply to
mutley

The North American "L" girder method.

Open benchwork, subroadbed only where the tracks need to go. Benchwork built with 1x4 (4x1) or 1x3 (3x1) clear pine or equivalent using the "L" Girder system with cross pieces every 16" or so and the subroadbed supported on risers.

Subroadbed of 3/4" (1/2" will do, plywood covered with your favourite roadbed. Mine's a 1/2" compressed paper product used for sound proofing underlayment in walls and under floors.

The best permanent benchwork, and flexible, roodbed system going.

-- Cheers Roger T.

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of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

We've used 6mm plywood frame and 6mm mdf tops. If your loft is likely to get damp in the winter, seal it with matt varnish, especially the edges.

If I was building new now, I would use the same woods but use .5" fibre 'wood flooring underlay' as the track underlay. Its very cheap in large packs from DIY stores.

best of luck.

-- David Smith. Copthorne. West Sussex. UK snipped-for-privacy@copthorne.freeserve.co.uk

Outgoing mail checked by Norton AntiVirus 2002

Reply to
David Smith

Don't use MDF, or hardboard, or chipboard for baeboards. They are far too heavy and don't like damp.

You would most definitely need to drill pilot hoes in MDF to be able to easily drive track pins. Plywood will easily accept pins.

Plywood is the best material to use - even for fabricating the girders for the American L-girder system.

I have sent you a copy of my lightweight, easy-to-build baseboard system.

Kev>

snip

Reply to
Dick Ganderton

=> What are the preferred materials for baseboard construction? I will =>shortly begin building an 11ftx11ft layout with a central area approx =>4ftx2ft.

That means your benchwork will be 3-1/2 or 4-1/3ft wide -- much too wide for easy reach. max width for low benchwork (wasit hieght or therabouts) is 3ft, and if you build closer to eye level, it must be narrower. So your first order of business is to rethink your plan.

Make open frame benchwork, use risers (vertical posts attach to crosspieces) to support track boards, etc. Nominal one inch lumber is the right stuff for this. Insulating foam makes good subroad bed, lay ballast strip on top of that, and track on top of the ballast strip. Foam also makes good scenery formers. A basket weave of box-board strips stapled and/or hotglued together makes a good base for plaster + paper towel scenery base (use three or four layers if you use plaster of paris, two are enough if you use stronger types.) Get a couple fo books, both UK and US authored, for details. There are websites, but I find real books much handier (and easier on the eyes, too.)

As for materials: a general rule is use the best timber you can afford. Never skimp on tools. Cheap stuff causes more hassles than it's worth. A sheet of

11mm ply can be cut into strips that are lighter and stiffer than dimesnional lumber, and may actually be cheaper all told -- socalled "good one side" is more than good enough for the purpose. Glue and screw all jpoints. Use a carpenter's square, etc.

HTH&GL

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

=>You would most definitely need to drill pilot hoes in MDF to be able to =>easily drive track pins. Plywood will easily accept pins.

Never, never, never lay track directly onto the subroadbed, no matter what the material is made of. Always use a ballast strip (cork, etc). Track on table top looks bloody awful, and worse, it conducts motor noise and such something 'orrible.

The best method is a sandwich made up of: Subroadbed (ply or dimensional lumber, or splines, or whatever). Roadbed (soft material such a the floor underlay mentioned by Roger and others, or foam). Optional ballast strip (cork). Track.

The subroadbed should be 1 to 2 inches wider than the roadbed, so that there is room to fasten the scenery forming material to it, and to make the track side ditches and paths for the track gang (platelayers). The roadbed should be just slightly wider than the ballast strip, if that's used, else should be about 1/2 to one inch wider than the ties, depending on your ballast profile.

HTH&GL

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

Everone has different ideas:-) I use a top surface of 12mm chipboard with a top layer of 12mm "pinex" which is a softer version of the UK soft board. I use a 75x25mm pine perimeter frame with cross pieces every 600mm. For baseboards longer that 1200mm I go to 100mmx25mm pine. Everything is glued and nailed or screwed. The extra weight minimises vibration/sound in the baseboard structure, as well as absorbing movement when operators lean on/bump the baseboard.

I've built lighter baseboards, but I've also had problems with lighter surfaces warping during scenicking and ballasting, which is the end for any layout.

Regards, Greg.P.

Dick Gandert> Don't use MDF, or hardboard, or chipboard for baeboards. They are far

Reply to
Gregory Procter

Watch the mdf for moisture, add water and you will not need paper mache for terrain.

We use softwood frame, pine (first time) or pacific maple (second time). Top this with masonite supporting sundeala or equivalent.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew Robson

Roger T. skrev i news: snipped-for-privacy@grapevine.islandnet.com:

L-girder benchwork is excellent for permanent layouts but not so for layouts that will have to be dismantled as it has too little torsional stiffness in itself.

Reply to
Erik Olsen

Six months ago I would've agreed with you, but much to my surprise my statistical sample of one says otherwise ;-) I was building a compost heap at the bottom of the garden out of all the junk wood I'd accumulated, and a crappy sheet of untreated 4'x2' MDF suggested itself as one side, simply leant against/inside the corner timbers so I could yank it out to empty the compost. Six months later it's developed a longitudinal bow, but then it was never nailed to anything; but it's not flaked, swelled, or disintegrated. Totally weird.

So now I'm considering selling my grass clippings as wood preservative :-)

R.

Reply to
Richard

I use MDF and whilst I appreciate that I'm newly returned to the hobby (last time I played trains chipboard was state of the art) I've found it very solid, so much so that I let alone my 6 year old can actually climb onto the table when building scenery without the table suffering any ill effects. I have to point out though that it is a permanent layout, that is it doesn't have to be taken apart and carried about. It has no grain, doesn't splinter, can be machined, drilled, glued to with ease (normal warning for working with MDF to be inserted here). It also comes very, very flat. As for stability, (baring in mind that it's indoors) I set up a 8'x4' table two years ago and found that earlier this year when I took it down the board was in such good condition I could cut it up to make a "L" shaped 2' wide table, still flat, still stable and I can still sit on it :-)

Certainly for an indoor, permanent layout I really do believe it to be ideal as a baseboard. If I was building a portable layout then yes, I'd definately go for a lighter material but to be frank that may mean that I'd use 1/2" MDF rather than the 3/4" I'm using it the moment. If I was working in a damper enviorment then I'd reconsider and use another material entirely.

Rollocks, certainly pre-drill the trackwork but MDF accepts and holds nails (and screws for BB building) without any difficulty.

I may well be moving to the loft or garage before to long, obviously a little more subject to damp/condensation than a centrally heated bedroom so if it's not to much trouble would you consider sending me a copy of the above as well. Cheers.

Reply to
Chris Wilson

Some baseboards built using Dick's design concept.

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Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

I've 'rescued' much MDF from skips over the years. rain doesn't hurt it at all.

Pete

Reply to
mutley

Ditto here. In my experience, in non-railway applications, MDF actually survives being wet better than plywood which tends to delaminate. Chipboard on the other hand inflates to 15 times its original size...well... almost!

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

For my 8' x 6' layout I used 2" x 4" framing, screwed to the wall on 3 sides, 11mm plywood board topped by smooth-faced 2' x 4' ceiling tiles. I filled the gaps with polyfilla and applied 2 coats of grey latex floor eneamel. The surface is quite soft so I have to be careful to avoid damage, however it is easy to test out your track layout, pushing track pins in by hand. Once I have marked the track centrelines, I apply cork ballast with rubber cement, which holds it in place; it can easily be removed and repositioned without damage. I plan to glue down the track with white glue, then apply ballast with dilute Artist's matte medium.

Reply to
MartinS

I should have said central area approx 4ftx4ft not 4ftx2ft. I wouldn't get myself & 2 sons in otherwise. I had thought about 3ft 6ins wide board but that is only an idea, I need to do a few reaching trials.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Rayner

I have to admit that the weight of mdf was putting me off a bit, mainly from the point of view of manhandling it but by using 4ftx2ft would be ok but had overlooked the total weight on the loft floor. I had of course intended to use a cork underlay. Considering the comments I am tending to think now of using plywood but the sandwich with floor underlay looks worth considering.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Rayner

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