Philip John Pugh demonstrates a portable and lightweight composite model railway baseboard.
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Philip John Pugh demonstrates a portable and lightweight baseboard.
The effort of lifting traditionally constructed baseboards is becoming more noticeable, both for myself and other members of Hazel Grove and District MRS. I therefore decided to build a proof-of-concept lightweight baseboard from partly recycled materials. My design incorporates a layer of 25mm expanded polystyrene sheet laminated with corrugated cardboard for rigidity and lightness. You could choose to replace the polystyrene sheet with another layer (or layers) of cardboard (running the grain at right-angles) to make the baseboard even more environmentally friendly.
It uses corrugated cardboard fruit boxes obtained from my local supermarket, which allows customers to take them for re-use. You will need three of exactly the same size and type for the main structure, plus another five to six to cut up for laminating, reinforcement and the minimal legs.
Using three boxes side-by-side produced a nominal 46in by 23in (116cm by 58cm) baseboard that would easily fit into my car and had a net weight of 10lbs (4.5kg). It is easy to carry due to the handholds left in the ends of the original boxes (which became the upright sides of the baseboard), and is surprisingly rigid. Experimentation with methods of wiring, tracklaying and lightweight scenery will be next. DCC control will be used, so hopefully the wiring stage should be straightforward, with no need for isolated sections and the like.
This article shows the principle involved. You can adapt the method to suit the size of baseboard that you require – the method is quite flexible. After assembly, I added a single additional laminating layer of cardboard to the outside of the baseboard sides (run the corrugations at right angles to those in the sides) for improved rigidity. To make it even easier to carry, I also opened out the existing handholds and cut a few new ones to even out the distribution of the load.