Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Hi,

After finishing some paying work today I had a look at the track laid on the base boards.  There is a bit of an issue with the sleepers they are not very constant in height in fact all their dimensions are a little variable but the width and length don’t matter.  The very important centre distance of the holes for the chairs are very accurate.  For the intended use in a garden the variables wouldn’t matter but for a layout that it was intended not to use fishplates across the base board joins it is a real problem.  So, I made up some sleepers using 4 mm plywood which is very consistent in thickness.  Having done this and found that 4 mm would accommodate the spigot on the chairs I decided to make a cross section of a base board replacing the previously used 9 mm plywood with 6 mm plywood (our existing layout uses 6 mm plywood which has to be braced when used in larger widths); the aim being to reduce the weight and height of the base boards.  A saving of 5/6 mm was achieved and a third of the weight of the plywood, this if my sums are correct means that up to 16 base boards could be fitted across the trailer.  I will continue to cogitate (which doesn’t hurt if you are sitting down).

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Regards. 

Tony.