Baseboard For A Model Railway, Where Do Get One

[nong38]

Hello all, having brought out some kit from the UK, moved into a news house and been given sole rights to the spare room I now wish to build a model railway. In the Uk I used an office noticeboard made of sundeala which was soft enough to take pins easily for laying the track. I live in Nakhon Sawan and have looked at several "wood depots" but all they seem to do is doors, furniture and post boxes, so does anyone have any thoughts as to where I might look for a baseboard that would be suitable? Sensible replies would be appreciated, so far I will try Home Mart next week to see what they have to offer. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[chris1101]

Hi Nong38,

I am a UK expat (Sheffield) and shipped out all my 'N' gauge items in September 2010. I am in Pattaya and have yet to start building my baseboard. You are spot on as to sundeala but I have not seen anything similar over here. Can only suggest 2" x 1" supports and whatever softwood is available in your area - not managed to find anything suitable in Pattaya. Sorry for not being much help with your query. May I respectfully ask what gauge/era/country you model in? If needs be please email me at: [email protected] and maybe we could discuss the whole issues of model railways. The problem I have at the moment is how to design my intended layout - I have an available space of 10' x 12'. Despite all the track plan books I have - Peco & C J Freezer I just cannot seem to get it together. Hope to hear from you.

As ever,

Chris Fawcett

[monsieurhappy]

I am very envious of you with your model railway, I sold mine before i came out here.

Anyway, have you thought about using sections to make up the baseboard instead of just one large board?

Around here (Pattaya)there are many woodwork shops building fitted wardrobes from small section timber frames covered with ply. I don't know what they have where you live but here you can get ply in various thicknesses.

You could bolt 4 such sections together to form a rectangle with somewhere in the middle for the operator or even put the sections around the room as a sort of shelf. Again, here you can buy large pieces of polystyrene (3mm) that you could lay on the ply to soften the sound of the trains.

I hope this reply doesn't sound like I'm trying to teach granny to suck eggs, it isn't meant to.

[Spoonman]

What about cork notice boards, they are available.

[nong38]

Thanks for your thoughts. Since posting this I have e mailed Home Mart who suggested I look at "elephont board" ( have not yet been to have a look ) and had some Thai friends round last weekend. one was acontruction engineer/manager. I explained I thought I needed 3 peices on soft board 2m x 1m which I could strengthen with batons underneath. Beacause I could show him the track and trains running in the spare room he was aable to tell me, through a friend that when I was ready to build, he can help me to construct it,so, it looks like my problem might be solved,but not with sundeala, some local stuff that I am unaware of. In a year or so I will be able to advise one and all, hopefully. In the meantime it might be worth checking out the elephant board in HOME MART, apears to come in various thicknesses from 6mm, 8mm and up although 6mm with batons might be ok.