Stage 1

I haven't posted for a while but thought as i'm getting through the construction - i'd start uploading the photos. These are from day one.

The very first step was to fix the board to the folding table tennis table (which incidentally worked extremely well to achieve exactly what I wanted to!!).

The table tennis table I had purchased was one of those 'olympic' ones that they sell at Rebel Sport for extraordinary amounts of money - ie $1000 upwards. I managed to purchase the table (and bats and balls for that matter) for just over $150 on that wonderful internet site that is eBay. The table is designed to be split into to halves and then can be folded vertically to slip into a small vertical space or placed conveniently up against the wall of a garage or rumpus room for storage.

It is the second reason in which I chose this method as the layout will fold up vertically, be no more than about 400mm in width and will easily fit up against a garage wall when not in use. To satisfy the wife, this had to happen!!

The base board for the layout was simply 3 sheets of 15mm MDF bolted using M10 bolts to the two table tennis table halves. For the fold to work it was imperative that both the table halves had to be aligned or fold the same way (not opposite like the table had been designed). Once this had been achieved it was simply a matter of attaching the MDF base board to the tables. The Photo below shows the bolts used to fix the MDF to the table tennis table. In future blogs I will show the fold and how the layout will be able to be stored easily away

Now the board was down it was time to create the track bases and the elevated rail sections. To keep the relative light weight of the layout for the folding mechanism, I used 19mm, 140mm wide model pine. This would provide the adequate strength I needed without the weight. I fixed these to the base board using a combination of nails and PVC glue or Aquadere! When dry this would provide a more than adequate fixing to the base board.

At this stage I had roughly drawn the track layout from the the plans that I had drawn up over the last week or so. (See below)

The Layout Plan had consisted of 5 tracks on an undulating layout that would encompass bridges, tunnels, towns, freight yard and a coal mine (my favourite). This vision hopefully will be realised as it is extremely difficult to see from the drawing! It will make more sense upon completion!!

The next step was to begin glueing down the bridging boards between the pine upstands. The bridging boards I used were 3mm mdf sheeting which I cut into the desired widths. The mdf was used as it would be strong and stable enough to bridge the spans of the pine without warping and also satisfy the lightweight requirement. I had purchased a HO scale water sheet off eBay which will eventally be treated with some clear putty, paint and nail polish to give it a very realistic water impression. At the moment it is just imperative to place the sheet down, so my bridge elements can be placed over the top. (See below)

With the correct radius for each of the corners the 3mm MDF was cut to size using my ban saw and fixed to the pine. The 3 tracks on the outside are approximately 100mm above the base board with the 2 main line tracks being only 30mm above the baseboard. This will create hopefully a killer landscape and allow the train to run through, over and under, the landscape that i'm aiming to create.

More to Come............