The Framework Split In order to avoid lots of joins in the scenic section framework, I decided to split that part into 2 large sections. Each about 2400mm long and about 1100mm deep. This is not really recommended if you’re going to move things around a lot on exhibitions. Especially if you don’t have the appropriate trailer. I’m not thinking about exhibitions (at least not yet). The other reason do two sections that big is that it resulted in a split nicely between the station and the viaduct. Big Boy Of the two, the biggest section contains the station and goods yard as it’s mostly sitting above the valley that…

Once I’d built the 4 simple sections (all 80mm deep), I was ready to test my connections idea. I wanted to make the sections relatively easy to pull apart and join back together so I went with alignment dowels and offset latches. Both of these aren’t simple Bunnings or Mitre10 buys (B&Q or Home Dept) so I needed to turn elsewhere. Brass dowels as used by British modelers and screwed in are not cheap and postage makes it worse. In the end I went with eBay push-in aluminium dowels secures with liquid nails. Maybe not as robust as the brass option but seems to work OK. The offset latches were…

Done the research. Made the plans. Will it actually come together? Ok, gotta start somewhere so let’s start with the easy one: the simple back wall plywood baseboard sections. Each section of the layout is designed to be light and detachable. To do this I decided on 9mm marine plywood. I know a lot of people talk about birch being a better material but frankly too expensive here in Australia for my taste. I also thought about make the cross sections out of thinner plywood to make things even lighter but decided against it. That would have made joins more complex and more difficult to nail. It would have also…