Lightweight Baseboard Construction

Presented at VMRS Meeting 18 September 2013by John de la Lande

Photo

Gippsford

Baseboard Design CriteriaWhen I decided to build Gippsford, for showing at the AMRA Exhibition last year, I focused on meeting these criteria: for the baseboard:•Lightweight•Easy to build•Easy to dismantle for transport•Least amount of work•Eliminate warping •Use perfectly straight structural members•Keep cost down (as much as possible)•Hide point mechanisms from damage•Minimise wiring issues•Easy alignment of track from one board to the next

Materials

• Decided on Aluminium structural members as:• Lightweight.• Easy to work with.• Relatively cheap.• Free cutting to length (Action Aluminium).• Quick to build and dismantle (using Aculok system

and 25.4mm square Aluminium tube).• Height adjusting feet available (and casters if

required).

Materials (2)• Decided to use “extruded polystyrene” for the

base of the layout as:• It is lightweight.• Relatively strong.• Deadens noise very effectively.• Can be easily shaped and cut.• Has a range of thicknesses available.• Can be glued together using PVA (I used 2 part epoxy

to glue to the ply base).

Materials (3)

• Used building plywood under the extruded polystyrene as:• It added structural rigidity to the baseboard

frame.• Provided support for the extruded polystyrene

and minimised cross structural members required.• Allowed wiring and connectors to be easily

attached underneath using a hot glue gun.

Baseboard Construction Layers

Extruded Polystyrene

Square Al TubingPlywood

Rect Al Tube boltedTo square tubing toReduce sag.

Materials (4)

Aculok connectors.

Baseboard Framing

Underneath layout showing framing and wiring.

Legs

Lighting (1)• Support poles were clipped onto the legs

to enable LED strip lighting to be installed.• The LEDs come in a 5m roll with a sticky

back enabling them to be stuck onto an aluminium “L” shaped strip of aluminium.

• Very light weight and very easy to install and dismantle.

Lighting (2)

Brackets were made from 3mm acrylic to connect the “L” aluminium to theUprights and made such that there angle could be adjusted to obtain optimum lighting. For a permanent layout the lights can be suspended on Fishing line.

Cost Comparison (1)

Aculok connectors cost on average $1.30 each but cost depends on how many ways it is designed to support (eg: 3 way, 4 way).

Square tubing to match the Aculok connectors costs $20.80 per 6.5m lengths – that is $3.20 per m. Action Aluminium were by far the cheapest for aluminium I could find and would cut the tube to the lengths I required for free (just needed to provide them with a cutting list).

Cost Comparison (2)Material Description Cost/m

Aluminium Square 25.4 x 25.4 (1” x 1”) $3.20

Dressed Pine 64 x 19 $2.80

Dressed Pine Framing 42 x 30 $3.34

Tas Oak Hardwood 65 x 19 $5.68

Structural Framing Pine Walls

2” x 1” $2.50

Wood prices are from Bunnings Mentone

Issues & Conclusions The span between legs can be an issue. If too long the

aluminium can sag. This can be resolved by:• Adding more legs.• Bolting (and gluing) a length of Aluminium under the

Aculok square tubing. Note that it is the combined depth of the beam that determines its rigidity over the length of the span.

Ballast weighs more than the boards! The baseboards were easy to erect, dismantle and

transport. Easy to align track from one board to the other.