Baseboards supported by Squares will warp.
Baseboards supported by Diagonals will not.
This is how I made the one for Moxley from 5mm cheapo plywood.
Why?
With one end of the board on some carpet and my foot holding it down I cannot not twist it any more than a couple of millimetres. Make your own board as a square do the test above then put one diagonal in and try it again, you've just saved yourself £100's and months of time.
What are we?
Railway Modellers!
What do we see?
Diagonals over railway systems worldwide, even under wagons!
Due diligence.
The earliest example I have come across is the Romans building a bridge across the Danube. They used diagonal timber piles at right angles to the bridge on the up and downstream sides to transfer the weight of the water to the downstream side. My mind boggles at the thought of making a vertical pile driver let alone a diagonal one!
My own experience.
I made my first layout in the late 70's, it warped. My second one was made on two boards in 1979 using diagonals. I sold it to Solihull MRC John Ross one of the members bought it out of the club and is still using it as I write, I met him at the Birmingham MRC show in 2016 asked him if it had warped it hadn't.
If you think what I do is over the top, please take a look at this;
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