Planning a culvert

One of the first lessons I learned when building a “proper” model railway layout is that flat ground isn’t.

The area around Cawood in Yorkshire may look featureless but a flat chipboard baseboard doesn’t make a good job of replicating it no matter how much flock gets stuck down. Since then, despite using solid topped boards, I’ve always tried to incorporate some undulations in my landscape. There’s not a lot of space for mountains on this project but a small mucky stream is a possibility. This will be an interesting feature and gives me the chance to put some small culvert pipes under the track for extra interest.

To get the process started I had to plan ahead. The basic line of the watercourse was marked on the board and then underneath I used offcuts of the framing wood spanned by leftover ply to make a square pipe under the surface. At some point I’ll cut through with a Stanley knife and turn it into a channel. Hacking away at the softwood should allow me to vary the width a bit as well, all without effecting the structural strength of the baseboard.