Boxing Owen's Bridge

Transporting layouts is one of those things that most people don't think about when gawping from the public side of the barrier.

Once you've built a model though, it becomes pretty important to you, After all, there's a lot of work been put in to the model and you don't want to be setting up at a show to discover it has been reduced to miniature rubble.

Owen's Bridge is particularly vulnerable. Unlike most of my layouts it consists of a single baseboard so can't be turned into a box with the scenic areas protected in the middle. At the front is a reasonably delicate wooden bridge crying out for a wallop to destroy it. No, this time I had to make a box for it to live in.

The box is in fact a lid made from 6mm thick plywood. The insides are braced with softwood angle and for extra protection, the corners are covered with L-shaped mouldings. There's lashings of PVA glue and quite a few 15mm long panel pins involved holding the who lot together.

In use, the box is placed over the model and then screws are inserted in through the sides - you can just see them in the photo.

Of course I now have a 64cm by 104cm by 44cm box which is an absolute pain in the backside in a domestic room. After Warley, it will be shipped off to storage to get it out of my way.

To make sure I know what's in there, and which way around the cover goes, I've painted the name on the box.

 

To give a suitable military feel, a stencil was made by printing the name in an appropriate font on a sheet of paper and then cutting the letters out with a sharp knife. The sheet was stuck to the woodwork with masking table and painted with some sponge and emulsion. Looks about right to me and didn't take too long to do.



Of course, if the layout arrives at the who with no damage, it will all have been worthwhile.