Woodworking for layout design - first attempt

[potatan]

Now that I've made a train go round a loop my next task is to build a baseboard to support my 2 loops final(ish) track design.

Pictures of the track and my baseboard ideas below.

The baseboard top is 125x75cm in 9mm ply and has nominally 4x1 timber all round with a 4x1 across the centre, then 2x1 noggins/bracing. Actual mm measurements on the plan.

1. I understand I'll need to pre-drill cabling holes in the long 4x1 across the centre - but not the 2x1's as cables can just go over them in the 2" gap?
2. I've tried to place the noggins away from the points but one of them lies under a Peco ST-51 crossing - is this problematic in terms of cabling the crossing?
3. Are my wood sizes over the top for an N gauge? I think not as it's more to do with not flexing than the weight of the components on top of the board but if I can make it less bulky for no loss of functionality then I will. The whole thing is only about 4' x 2'6
4. Can anyone check my maths for the wood lengths?
5. My town has a name. No questions, I just liked coming up with it as I'm a toponymy nerd


Latest dual loop track incarnation. Ignore buildings, just for ideas at the moment:

Baseboard wood plans:

[aleopardstail]

no need to worry about wiring the crossing, there are no wires to add to it it just takes power via the fishplates

for what its worth my N gauge layout, 4'x2'6" board looks like this:

IMG_2210.JPG (55.3 KiB) Viewed 938 times

this is 9mm plywood cut 4" deep, I initially had a similar cross bracing idea to yours but figured it was overkill

cable holes drilled through, note this ended up a proper mess under it because I was trying to do too much in the space, the board however worked fine, indeed the cable holes could have been quite a bit larger and the board is rock solid including against "twisting" torsion forces which a lot of square braces stuff struggles with - only issue is needing a longer sheet to make it - my entire board was an 8'x4' 9mm sheet and a length of 1" square stripwood (and I had plenty of ply left over) - needed to have lengths longer than 4' for the diagonals - and meant the deck could be a single panel

9mm ply with 4x1 all round will work, keep the weight of it in mind! also suggest having a backscene if this is going to be set up and removed, something that attaches with a couple of bolts - purpose being to protect whichever end goes on the floor and stop it falling over so easily

if you are going with the noggins then pre-drilling cable holes is a good idea, and two or three times as many as you think you need, also sand around the edges (learnt that bit the hard way)

also once you have it built before you fix track down (doesn't matter at the 'just playing' and rearranging things stage) get some 3mm (0r 2mm) thick cork to go under the track - 20mm wide strips of it work. lifts the track a bit and helps deaden the sound as 9mm ply is an amazing sounding board