Sunday 10 May 2009

Brafferton Update 24: Baseboards

When I started "Brafferton" I thought of it as a "small" layout. It soon became apparent, having built the baseboards, that it wasn't. When scenery and backscenes were added, I quickly realised that moving the layout around safely would need some careful thinking about.


With three scenic boards and two non-scenic, I decided that two scenic boards could be moved together and the remaining three boards would group together.


End frames were cut and drilled to coincide with the baseboard joining fitting. Where each board end meets the frame, the male part of a dowel locates into the frame and a wheel-headed bolt secures through onto a lock-nut.

The frames extend wider than the boards and above and below to afford some protection to edges of scenery etc. Finally, I have left a long extension on the top and incorporated hand-holes for carrying. Using this system, I can now fairly easily manhandle these two scenic boards alone, even to the extent of taking them down the stairs.


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