Baseboards builders / suppliers

[tim-pelican]

Hi all,

Track and trains in some form are now firmly on the list for Christmas, so I'm now looking to source a baseboard in order to have somewhere to put it all and have a play   My carpentry skills are *really* not up to the job - I'd need to cut about twenty legs to get four the same length!  Much better for me to pay someone else who can, and spend my time with trains, not a saw.

This is for a simple flat 5' x 2' board, with the box-work type bracing underneath, and legs on braked castors so I can move it around as needed.

I've had email exchanges with both Model Railway Solutions and Professional Layout Services so far, and both seem helpful, but I thought I'd check in and see if anyone had any comments one way or the other, or any other suppliers that I ought to be talking to.

Thanks,
Tim.

[EtchedPixels]

I would suggest talking to your local chippy or joiner if you have one, usually *far* cheaper for basic stuff, can be done on site and because you are there on the spot all the little details like avoiding chimney stacks, checking understanding, trying heights etc can be done.

[Dock Shunter]

If you really don't feel like having a go it might be worth finding a local joiner/workshop and see if they would be willing to make a baseboard for you.That way it would be on a more personal level and you would get exactly what you want.
If you are in the North West of England i could recommend a fine Joiner who is also a railway modeller.



Look's like Allan just beat me to it.......

[Gordon]

My new layout which will be at Warley is built using two B&Q paste tables. No, not the old flimsy type but the new sturdy fibreboard top type with 'W' type legs:

http://s7g1.scene7.com/is/image/BandQ/0000003418383_001c_v001_zp?$173x173_generic$=

Sturdy and inexpensive

[polo2k]

I have recently used 50mm foam insulation board and im loving it!
Light as a feather, plenty tough enough and 120cmx50cmx5cm is £6 from Wickes!

I have added an outer frame but that would be overkill for a home layout.

For an ideal base, you could use the paste table above, with the foam attached to that!

There are also som plywood boxes at ikea that may be useful.

[Fratton]

apart from two sections my layout baseboard frames are modelrailwaysolutions they are robust easy to put together once the've been boarded incredibly strong in my own personal experiance,

[Pengi]

I have recently used 50mm foam insulation board and im loving it!
Light as a feather, plenty tough enough and 120cmx50cmx5cm is £6 from Wickes!

I have added an outer frame but that would be overkill for a home layout.

For an ideal base, you could use the paste table above, with the foam attached to that!

There are also som plywood boxes at ikea that may be useful.

I have also been using the 50mm foam board (Spaceboard from B&Q). I had my OO gauge running on it and now I have my N running on it. I have six boards glued together (using No More Nails, Copydex and cocktail sticks to align it). I have cut some 'beams' from another board and from paring 100mm from the boards and glued them underneath to brace it and to take holes for the wiring. Overall dimensions is 3000mm x 900mm. I use plastic straws to feed the wiring through the foam. The whole lot is supported on trestles from IKEA (about £6 each). As the boards have been used for two previous OO layouts, I have covered them with 25mm Jablite foam (also from B&Q) and i am using Jablite to form the scenery. As my layout is in the garage, it has to be lifted on its side occasionally - and this is a doodle to do with the foam.

[Gordon]

I have to admit that I have not left my paste tables with the original leg configuration as it is too low for my preference (OK for kids but adults have to stoop so I've use the legs upright.

What layout height do the various Ikea and other commercial trestles give the layout?

[Pengi]

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?query=trestles

Link to IKEA above. The trestles I used have gone up to £8 but there are some for £5. The height is 70mm - not very high but the foam boards and the foam bracing lifts it up to a workable height for me (but I am not very tall).

[tim-pelican]

If you really don't feel like having a go it might be worth finding a local joiner/workshop and see if they would be willing to make a baseboard for you.That way it would be on a more personal level and you would get exactly what you want.
If you are in the North West of England i could recommend a fine Joiner who is also a railway modeller.

Essex, but thanks for the offer.

[tim-pelican]

Thanks all for the trestle / paste-table suggestions, but I definitely need vertical legs at the corners.  A 4' (ish) wide desk needs to fit underneath, so I only have 6" at each end to play with in terms of support...

[polo2k]

What about speaking to a local scool.
Perhaps they have an old desk that may have had the top damaged, but the frame is still good. When I was at school we used tables that were 2 seats wide and used a chipboard top on a steel frame, this would be ideal!

[Newportnobby]

I am oh so capable of reducing perfectly good wood to matchwood/splinters/dust, but not so long ago I bought a circular saw.
Carefully laid the lengths of wood taped together so nothing moves, stuck in in my workbench, marked where I need to cut and it was a piece of, er, cake to cut equal lengths. There weren't even any finger particles in it!!

[Pengi]

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50176515/

IKEA do a desk, £9.99.

[m1racleman]

I have recently used 50mm foam insulation board and im loving it!
Light as a feather, plenty tough enough and 120cmx50cmx5cm is £6 from Wickes!

Just as a matter of interest, how do you fix your track to polystyrene foam?
And what about fitting point motors under it ?