From paper to reality - the start

Hello, as promised I have a few more details of my lock board. I tend to sketch ideas on odd scraps of paper, as you can see. I find this helps with sorting out measurements like ‘how deep or wide should the gorge be’? 4mm to the foot makes things very easy. To a great extent I was governed by the height (or depth!) of the viaduct I had built.
This may seem a little complicated but I find the planning makes all the difference to the end product – a bit like decorating. Then the point of no return - cutting the board. Using 12 mm MDF meant the board was still rigid even with the narrow strip left joining the two halves – even so, I strengthened with 12 mm edging strips. I do tend to overdo the strengthening but better safe than sorry.
Supporting the bottom of the gorge was interesting but a few bent metal brackets and plenty of screws did the job. I tend to use screws for fixings simply because it’s possible to undo the inevitable mistakes!
With the viaduct in place I was pretty pleased with myself but the fun was still to come….. designing and building the lock. To be continued ….