The shape of the land.

Quickly moving along, I've spent the week working on the landscape of this 20" square slice of England.  The layout is heavily inspired by images of the Sand Hutton Light Railway in Yorkshire. Though the line itself traverses gradients as much as 1 in 80, photographs of the line make it feel like the area is billiard table flat. I feel a small flat baseboard would look silly. As silly as a train would look traversing a mountain landscape baseboard of the same size. Delicate changes in the lie of the land are called for.
This was achieved by cutting and shaping some pieces of some pieces of expanded polystyrene foam. The roads were also added using a layer of cork.

Expanded polystyrene changes in elevation

 Next comes one of my favourite stages. The Snowscape stage. I cover pretty much the whole baseboard with lightweight spackle. It is, as the name suggests, light in weight. It doesn't shrink or crack and takes colour well. My Purespring Watercress layout lasted 13 years with the material as the base. So it's long lasting too.

It's been snowing!

As much as I love the snowscape stage, it never lasts long. For as soon as the spackle is dry it gets painted with Woodland Scenics Earth undercoat. Once that is down I feel like the layout is starting to take shape.

We have earth.

What next? Probably some ground cover. For in the natural scheme of things, the ground comes first then the roads and railways are placed into the scenery. So it should be in the model.

Perhaps, I might get distracted by some model buildings. The white rectangle in the corner. That's the floor of the tin tabernacle should I decide to put a fully detailed interior in there.

Who knows?

Back in the saddle

Now that the Narrow Gauge Convention is over, I'm all fired up with enthusiasm get this project exhibitable, ready for the show in St. Cloud, MN on November 10th. I've placed orders for another locomotive kit, a coach kit and some rolling stock. I'm even planning a scratch building project. I have a lot a projects on my plate, but I think if I can set myself an hour a night during the week and some extra time at the weekends then I should be able to get very close.

First things first, lay the track. As the model is using Z gauge track, I'm a little wary that everything needs to be perfectly flat and level with good current contact. Even though the locomotives have magnets in them to keep them firmly on the rails, clean, flat, level track will help things a lot.

The first step was adding a track bed of 1/16" cork before laying the track. 

Cork trackbed in place

A thin smear of white glue was used to fix the track in place. As thin as possible, I didn't want any glue leaking into joints or the point.

Track glued in place, weighted down as glue sets

A couple hours later, with the weights removed. Things look OK. Twenty four hours later trains run pretty darned well. I may be inclined to try and solder a few of the track joints to help the current.

Glue set, train runs.

Step one completed. The next step will be to add a few contours to the board so is it isn't totally flat.  That will probably be a task for the weekend.

Let's make the baseboard!

I don't have the trains yet, and I don't know what to do with them when I get them. But I know the location and size. That was laid down in the challenge, and I have the materials to hand, so I can build the baseboard.
As I stated in the previous post, my inability as a woodworker is near legendary, so being able to use materials that I can cut with a knife and then glue, rather than cutting with a saw, followed by nailing or gluing and screwing is great for me. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I might have given up model railways if I couldn't have found an alternative to wood for baseboards.
Here then is an outline of the process.
1. The Materials. The cork faced sheet, a plain sheet of 3/16" (5mm) foamcore for the frame and any bracing I might deem necessary. A big 24" (610mm) square. A knife with nice, new, sharp blades, and finally a good strong glue. My glue of choice is Elmers woodworking glue, a strong PVA adhesive.

Everything I shall use to make the baseboard.

2. Cutting up. I cut the cork board slightly smaller than the drawer size so it would be easy to remove, and replace, just in case. Then using the 3/16" board I cut some 1 1/2" (38mm) strips for the edges. A totally arbitrary distance of no significance whatsoever.

All the bits cut. (Feel free to make shadow puppet remarks)

3. A sticky business. I take the glue, stick the parts together, and weigh them down for however long I see fit. (A good couple of hours)

Plenty of heavy tiles to weigh down the board as the glue sets.

4. Et voilà! We are finished. Square and level and a good fit in the drawer.

A nice fit. 

5. An afterthought. Even though the board is solid with no twisting or warping possible, some bracing underneath would probably not go amiss. Then I thought about all that empty space under there. Perhaps there will be room in that void for stock boxes, tools, controller, and the like. That bracing could then be used to partition areas off. Something for me to investigate when the trains get here.

Tempting storage space.

6. In conclusion. Quick, simple and easy. A strong baseboard for a micro layout.

Let's talk about baseboards

I said earlier that the layout subject was a blank slate. Despite me posting those pictures of the Vitacress line in Dorset, things could take any track yet. 

Some things though, are certain. This is one of them. The track will be laid on this material. Elmers cork faced foamcore board. It has a foam centre, faced on one side with a sheet of paper, and the other side by 1/32" cork sheet. It is advertised as useful for cork noticeboard projects. Approx. 10mm or  7/16" thick, it comes in a 20" x 30" sheet from hobby stores such as Michaels here in the US. 

Elmers Cork Sheet (picture from the Elmers website)

I have used the material before on my Underground Armaments layout. A model that sadly had to be disposed of in our house move. The cork does help to deaden the sound even in that small a thickness.

The underground armaments layout was something of a personal loss. But as I'd been working on the layout for about 10 years and it would stall at frequent intervals. I didn't feel too pained at its demise.

It is, I think, fairly well known that as a woodworker. I'm pretty incompetent. As a result, over the years, I've experimented with many different materials for baseboard construction. The flatpack Ikea APA box was my discovery. That discovery turned the small model railway baseboard world on its head. I'd also constructed baseboards from expanded polystyrene sheet too. Just to see if I could get away from wood.

The Cwm Lwch baseboard, made from expanded polystyrene. This baseboard survived multiple Minnesotan winters and summers in my garage and never warped or fell apart.

Never be afraid to challenge the accepted norms. In my teens, I once started a 009 layout in an Airfix model kit box and stiffened the thin card of the box with corrugated cardboard. Overall, the project failed but it didn't stop me experimenting.
Foamcore is a material I like. It's light, dimensionally stable, and easy to work with. No saws are needed, just a sharp craft knife and some strong glue.
My good friend, Tom Conboy. Has described in detail working with foamcore on his Wetterau Food Services Layout Blog. A useful resource. If you're considering working in foamcore take a peek.
I shall be taking a look myself.