009 Baseboard

Or rather a baseboard for a 009 layout. Inspiration for this owes a lot to Chwarel Bach by Neil Rushby. His layout, which appeared in the May 2011 issue of Railway Modeller, is a simple circle of track running through lush green scenery. I loved the look but felt I ought to complicate things a little, hence the point I looked at yesterday.

One idea I was keen to pinch was the raised track-bed. All the previous Hornby Magazine layouts have been flat top baseboard affairs. Since this was a much smaller model it seemed a ideal opportunity to do something a bit different/ Besides, all the techniques work just as well for standard gauge.

Anyway, a trip to Torries in Warwick saw me leave 18 quid lighter but with a couple of 2ft square bits of 6mm ply, some lengths of softwood and a large offcut of hardboard.

Some text track bending followed by a session with the jigsaw reduced one of the squares quite a bit. It was supported on risers and the whole lot held together with pins and glue. You get the basic idea from the photo. That big gap will have track over it eventually.