March, 2009

Satisfactory weight

28 March, 2009

By using foamboard I am saving a lot of weight. The basic shelf unit I had made last year weighs in at 18lb. It's made of pine, hardboard (masonite) and celotex (England's version of Homesote but not quite the quality).

After getting the base foamboard units done, their weight is 3lb 11 oz. That's over 14lbs less - you can color me happy. I reckon by the time I do the fiberglass resin and connectors, it'll still be under 5 lbs.

How I am going to do the actual trackwork is still hanging in the balance. I have a lot of foamboard, so could cut out some more sections to use as scenery cores and trackbed. Woodlands Scenics lightweight Hydrocal will handle the rest. One idea is to make the track/scenery base detachable so I could swap layouts and still use the core base units (the more I think about this the better it sounds).

The track plan based on the Wiscasset Waterfront I like, but may move stuff around - in which case it would not longer be a reconizable Wiscasset. I suppose not having a specific topic to work with doesn't help. The mining camp, as it was, won't work on the base units as they are narrower by about 5 inches. I may even go wild and do something radical. What I don't want to do is get stuck in a semi-permanent "planning stage rut".