New Railway Modellers Forums

Hi all

Have found a company that do foldable baseboards. Now my early questions are how does the scenery and building stay on the boards when folded and how do the rails connect?

Cheers.

Folding baseboards with scenery and buildings need to have the hinges raised well above the rail level. It's possible to limit the height required for the hinges if the tallest items on one half can fall into a space on the other half when folded. The hinges can be fastened on the top of wooden blocks, but the type of hinges used on the sides of some stepladders are less likely to flex. If these hinges cannot be found it's possible to make a functioning pair from 6mm ply and a large diameter nut and bolt.
Alignment of the tracks across the joint is taken care of by putting cabinet makers dowels in the mating faces. Electrical continuity can be made either by contact strips down the faces. Or by jumper cables with multipin plugs and sockets.
Hope this helps, you should be able to find examples if you peruse members layouts under construction.,
John W
aka Bufferstop.

This may offer some ideas? Click here

barney121e wrote:...Now my early questions are how does the scenery and building stay on the boards when folded ...

Everything that moves from the horizontal has to be rigidly attached to the structural element of the moving baseboard, any unattached pieces have to be removed before movement commences. Side note - not much of a problem in N, more challenging in OO, troublesome in O - items on the moving baseboard have to be strong and stiff such that they not deform or break during repeat cycles of moving and parked inverted.

I only know one person who went with this scheme, and he was the kind of guy who could fully visualise rotational movements and interactions of 3D objects, (in the days long before CAD made this easy) while having a couple of chass games underway and completing the Times cryptic crossword in unoccupied moments. And his verdict was PITA, glad to move on once his student days were done..