Model Railway Forum

Just so that I am not neglecting my layout, I made a start on filling one of the holes up so it has some available depth to it. I will add the scenic touch at a later date. The round holes will be left open as the platforms will be going on there.

While I have things out as I am working on my layout outside the house, I had a spare board and had previously rescued legs from an old organ. The idea is to make another smaller layout for my nephew. He is 15 and has a loco and three waggons.

The board is balancing on the legs just to have an idea of the height. I dong know if I will leave it 4ft long or if I should shorten it to make it better to fit in a car, though his Dads car has plenty of room.

Just a little update.
I am slowly working on the layout. I have decided that it would be rather nice to have a bridge as a feature to look at. It will just be something simple to span the gap. Nothing too elaborate.

Love your track complete with check rail.

Thanks WTD. The odd thing is that the rails are standard Peco code 100, yet they don't look like they are. It has been a bit of a learning curve.

I have done a little more work on the boards since then. A slow process but it is coming along well.

I thought I would share some photos of the progress I have made. It has been a slow process, and I needed to ensure that the lowering pieces I have glued on do not interfere with the legs that fold underneath.
So here are a few pictures. I hope the end results will also add some rigidity, which was obviously lost when I started to cut holes into it. Mind you, I expected this to happen and it is why I am using wood to form the new lower contours as it will be nice and solid.
I have also started to work on the other side of the layout in a similar manner. I opened up the pond thingie to make an area to add another bridge. The process is to shape the wood which is the part to be glued. Glue it on and then shape the glued on pieces after so the wood here that sticks out will be shaped. I used a little Unimat milling bit mounted in my minidrill. I am going easy as the milling bit has had some heavy duty work to do. Obviously one needs to be careful as one does not want to come into contact with the milling end!

And here is a photograph of how the odd shaped cutout piece now looks now I have lowered it a little further and added a bit more shape to it.

More progress. Some landscaping in progress!

If copying me make sure you do this outside as one really needs a well ventilated area when working with MDF.

The beauty with MDF and hardboard is that it does take to shaping quite well, as it does not have a directional grain like plywood has so no splintering issues, and it is less prone to coming off in clumps like chipboard does.

So with more contours forming with the careful use of a milling bit on my 100w (12v) minidrill, I better share some pictures.

While most contours are formed into the main MDF baseboard, with some below the board, I have just started to add a small piece of above board contouring which is seen at the edge of the board next to the diamond crossing.
I had better add a picture to show you what I mean.

More progress.... Some new landscape work seen to the right where some sections have been lowered and some have been highered (If there is such a word. Uhmm. Well there is now!). The track itself sits on the baseboard level.

Finally got the handrails done.