Rail200 - Tracklaying

One of the images in the book about the Wittingham railway shows the train passing by a pond in the grounds of the hospital, with the water just a foot or so below the track. I had an idea how I could include a similar situation in my small layout...

With the jigsaw set to cut at an angle (about 45 degrees) I cut the edge of the pond away from the front of the layout, the size being limited by the cross-member which is inset a couple of centimeters. 

The same piece was then glued back in place, the width taken out by the saw blade means it now sits 2-3mm lower than the baseboard. 

The "fixed" track at the front is to be placed on a strip of wood, which is about 3mm thick. I wanted the rest of the track at the same level, I'd planned to use foamboard but the normal stuff is 5mm thick and raised it too high. I found some 3mm foamboard on Amazon in A4 sheets, so these were cut to fit and marked out with the key track plan features and where holes would be required. The outer layers of this thin foamboard are very thin - like paper - so it is quite fragile at this stage. 

The strip of wood for the front track was stuck in place with double-sided tape, which means after the challenge I can pull it up easily and relay in Code 75 with a point - adding a layer of the thin foamboard. The set-track straight was glued down onto the wood strip with PVA. 

Holes were then cut or punched through the foamboard for the point tie-bar linkages and frog wires, and the points lined up. The rest of the track was then cut to size and fitted. I cut the rail with Xuron cutters, clean up with a file, and open out the chairs on the sleepers with a scalpel where the fishplates need to sit. Isolating fishplates were used where required around the points, I find these can be trimmed back to prevent a big gap in the sleepers. 

At the right-hand end the rails were cut flush with the edge for later connection to a fiddle yard. I found an offcut of 3mm MDF to make a solid base the same thickness as the foamboard, and a couple of pieces of PCB were cut to make a secure fixing. These were glued down, and having been pre-drilled, track-pins (the fatter Hornby type) were hammered in down to the ply base. The rails will be soldered to the PCBs shortly. Note the "fixed" track stops short with the space to the edge of the board clear as per the instructions.

So, that's the track all laid then!