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MDF or PLYWOOD

Eddie, Thanks for the update. Please keep us posted.

Andy

P.S. HAs anyone seen my Stanley knife ? I had it five minutes ago!

No I suppose it doesn't, but my local timber merchant offers a cutting service for 50p cut.

Up to 30mm thick can be cut in one go so upto 5 sheets of 8x4 cut into 4x2s equals 2 cuts £1.

I did this today, I had 2 sheets of MDF cut into 6 of 32"x48" and 1 cut into

4 of 24"x48" this cost me an additional £2 but a) meant they fitted into my hatchback and b) saved me the hassle of cutting them when I got home.

But if you only want a 4 x 2 and B&Q is more convienient, it makes sense to pay the extra.

Mind you I bought a 4x2 offcut of 3mm Oak faced ply for a £1 and a 4x2 offcut of 6mm Chestnut faced ply for £2 whilst I was there.

I have already started replacing the boards along the side walls, they were

18" they are now 24", I will mark where the points are to go on these boards (as they are easier to move in and out) and tomorrow I will route out the hollows for the motors.

The main boards will be a bigger task, and I will use new point motors for the points on there. I have not yet tried the boards with a cork layer yet, but they do not sound very much noisier than the insulation board at the moment, and I have run a couple of trains around the track at top speed.

Anyway, I digress, thanks for your advice.

Reply to
Andy Sollis- Churnet Valley model Railway Dept.
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Edward,

Just remembered I had actually set up a small web site for the S scale baseboard construction - if it's any use.

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Only one of the boards is shown - the other was a mirror image of similar construction but with one pair of legs which relied on the four legged board for stability.

The chain idea with a cross piece between the legs to hold the whole thing rigid worked in a fashion, but the stresses were quite high on the retaining screws holding the chains and the whole setup would have to have been beefed up if it had ever found its way onto the exhibition circuit. It only appeared at one exhibition as a work-in-progress layout (joint 2mm/S scale show at MK in the 90s), and as such didn't suffer too much operational stress - the owner's jaw took most of the stress :-)

There was a third board for the hidden sidings, but that never developed further than a pine frame, and I've still got it :-)

Jim

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

I agree, the more expensive Ply is the best. We call it marine ply down under, made for outside conditions. Even cheap ply in my experience is better than mdf. The marine ply on my layout was used on 2 layouts before this one, that makes it over 20 years in layout use, without warping or sagging. Some was under my house in a damp environment.

Terry Flynn

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HO wagon weight and locomotive tractive effort estimates

DC control circuit diagrams

HO scale track and wheel standards

Any scale track standard and wheel spread sheet

Reply to
NSWGR

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