What thickness of plywood is best for a model railway baseboard?
As I discussed here, plywood is the best material for a model railway baseboard but what thickness should you use?
The thickness of the top that I and most other railway modellers recommended 9mm or 12mm.
Anything less than this will be insufficient and will be prone to drooping or even twisting and may not support screws used to secure underboard mountings, which as explained here, are necessary for robust baseboard construction..
Equally, anything thicker will make cutting through for electrical wiring tiresome and is likely to be too thick for connections from underboard point motors to reach through.
Alternatively, you can also make your baseboard top from expanded foam, this is increasingly popular and has a number of advantages as explained here.
Take a trip down to B&Q or another DIY store to get the wood and come back here and let others know how you get on.
> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.
6mm ply is quite possible with adequate bracing and makes the board much lighter. My current layout uses 6mm with 72mm x 32 mm side frames and 6mm cross diagonal bracing. It’s now 8 years old and no warping at all. All joints are screwed and glued (clamped while glue drys)
Thank you for the info Steve. I have used 6mm before and agree it can be done. I’ll update the article. Andy