Then and now - Baseboards Gort

[Noel]

I was curious looking at old photos from the day of delivery of laser cut baseboard ply from WoodWorkers in Terenure, to construction, painting and finally layout building. The boards were constructed using the WMRC method pioneered by member and technical director Dave McCabe. No screws nor nails needed, just hot glue gun. I made the first two 5ft x 2ft boards in an hour, an other hour to paint the glass fibre reinforcement in the undersides, and two hours to paint both boards. Boards are light, portable, easy to work on stacked vertically for wiring and fitting of point motors, single servos, accessory decoders, no more crawling under baseboards. Cross members positioned not to interfere with Cobalt point motors under the base boards.

THEN - Ply collected from Truck in local village

Stored in Workshop before construction using hot glue gun and fibreglass tape

Before Fiberglass tape was added to the underside joints with PVC Glue rather than resin to avoid the smells of resin

Glass tape added

Painted top and undersides of baseboard to seal from long term moister for stability and easy of working on baseboard gluing track bed, foam blocks, static grass, etc.

Transposed track plan onto surface using a roll of grease proof paper.

Track plan transposed to avoid cross bracing under boards

Dry test track laying before track bed closed cell foam added. Last chance to check everything fits

Rotate board on their sides so its easier to work on the undersides standing up rather than crawling underneath. Much easier to do the wiring

Baseboard sits on its own back scene as a stable stand on the trestles

Much easier to install and test wiring and point motors

Hot glue used to freeze self adhesive cable ties in place. Screws used to secure servos and accessory decoders, with foam separation pads to avoid vibration noises when trains pass over head.

NOW - End Result (so far)

Thanks to WMRC for the helpful guidance and inspiration and especially Dave McCabe.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Noel

[DJ Dangerous]

Deadly seeing the whole thing condensed into one post. Carlsberg don't do timelapse, but if they did...