Monday, November 14, 2011

Splines 1.2

I have been trialing a different style of spline construction. The first spline roadbed I built was solid, made up of Masonite packing strips bought from Bunnings. It takes 14 strips to make a roadbed 42mm wide. While it is very strong it took longer than I thought to glue all those packing strips together.  I had read that some modellers use spacer blocks to save on materials and to make construction go quicker.
Solid spline on the left & splines with spacers on the right.

So I decided to give it a try. I used 9 packing strips glued in three splines separated by 10mm thick spacers. This has given me a roadbed that is 47mm wide and about 50% quicker to build. I think it is just as strong as long as the spacer blocks are placed together. The gaps between the splines also have the advantage of not needing to drill holes for the track wiring. I am planning to build the remainder of the layouts roadbed with spacers.

2 comments:

  1. Not directly to do with this post - could u post a track plan and what u plan re operations? One thing I like about Moe2Walhalla is its operational interest - junctions, daily ops at least - much more happening than most ng branches...cheers Nick

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  2. Nick, you can find a track plan at my November 2010 post. I have made some changes since then but the overall concept remains the same. I will try and update the plan and post it and how I plan to operate the layout soon....

    Cheers Murray

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