Model Forum / General / Railroads / March 2007

Scott, Powell wrote:

I guess you're going to make it two 4'x4' baseboards.
I would perimeter frame it with 3"x1" (pine) and ditto along the
center-line, glued and screwed.
The frames at the cut-out would follow the longest straight lines, plus
ends where the two boards meet, and further straight framing back along
the short front edges.
Top it with 1/2" MDF/ply/chipboard glued and screwed and then 1/2" sort
board on top for roadbed/scenery etc.
Three legs on left board, four legs on right board.
Bolt the two tables together with 1/4" coachbolts, washers and wingnuts.
Backscene of 5mm hardboad.

No need for anything fancy, just good solid construction! a 4'x4'
baseboard will be light enough to manhandle if you need to move it and a
reasonable weight and solid/rigid legs will keep it stable and
resistant  to small children using it to stabilize themselves as they
get up or down from stools, boxes etc.

Regards,
Greg.P.

(Of course I'd do it in metric measurements because that's what we buy
here)

For three year old (or older) children, the great fun of playing with
trains is setting up the track, and then changing the track layout.
Pushing the cars along by hand also has excellent play value.  I must
have been 7 or 8 years old before running the electric trains by
electricity was more fun than running them by hand.  I'd think there
would be more play value in a plain 4*8 train table than in the hollow
center design you show.  Plus, the cutout makes a big gap in the normal
side rails, weakening the structure of thing.
  Was it me, I'd start with a 4*8 sheet of Homasote (a grey paper based
wall board material).  Homosote is soft enough to take track nails well,
and it deadens the sound of the moving trains.  Back up the homasote
with a sheet of 1/4" plywood to carry the weight and prevent the
homasote from sagging.
  Run 4" boards at right angles to the playwood around all four edges.
 If you have access to a table saw, put a 1/4" dado into the edge
boards to accept the plywood.  Otherwise make 1" square battens.  With
some glue in the dado and a few brads driven in, you get a very stiff
4*8 panel.  Put the dado inch and a half down from the top, letting the
edge board form a little fence around the edge of the table to keep
derailed trains from plunging to the floor.
  Then beef up the plywood with some 1 1/2" deep ribs on the under
side. Screw and glue these to the plywood.  Trim the Homasote to fit and
glue it down to the plywood.
  To get the train table up off the floor you can do legs, or just set
it on a pair of saw horses, or a pair of short 2 drawer file cabinets.
For legs, 2*4 is plenty strong, but they will need diagonal braces to
prevent wobble or total collapse should they get kicked by accident.  A
leg in each corner is probably enough, but I might go for 6 legs
(corners and a pair half way down the length of it).  Attach the legs
with carriage bolts and you can take them off and store the train table
on edge out in the garage during the off season.

David Starr

Scott wrote:

Well, if you really want the cockpit I'd suggest something like this:

http://www.geocities.com/joetubesock/frame1.htm

The long frame members would go through the 'neck' area and avoid any
trouble you might have with less-than-rigid joints there.

What sort of trains are going on this board?

Cordially yours:
Gerard P.
President, a box of track and some grids.

Hmmm, a few boards maybe?  Not like you are framing a house for
chrisake.......

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