Building a Train Table

handy man88

I'm thinking of building my son a train table for Christmas. What type of wood would be ideal? Wood laminate 4x8 for both surface and structural support?

AllanJ

I recommend softwood plywood. Using 1x3 joists on 24 inch centers, and 1x3 rim joists I think will suffice for the framing.

There are a variety of sheet materials notably Celotex, drywall, and I think Homosote which are too soft to hold the nails needed to keep the track in place.

There are a number of sheet materials notably hardboard and particleboard that are too hard to nail into. I think that the material that laminate flooring is made up of is too hard.

I would not use particle board, wafer/chip/OSD board, hardboard, or laminated flooring material for framing. I think these as thin (3 inch or so) strips are likely to split in half.

Some model railroaders do not use a "board" but rather build framing including sections of wood cut to curves to fit the desired track. This allows more flexibility including the making of valleys.

4just1don

coolest one I ever saw waas my uncle built one in his step daughters bar. It was a narrow plywood I think and it ran all around the outside walls up close to the ceiling. IF you have a room you could do that with,,,it would be neat. But he may not be able to handle the stuff. this one was a larger scale one complete with whistle and all. specially if you had a center wall you could tunnel over to other side and back thru the joist spaces up and down with a small grade!!