There are various types of benchwork involved in MR (that's the lingo for Model Railroading). You've got the open gridwork bench, the shelf layout, the table top style, and some hybrid. I've gone hybrid, though its mostly table top built on top of gridwork. Why? I wish I had a great reason but reality is... 'cause that's the way it turned out. Most of the layout is flat, so an open grid isn't necessary. But the raised and rising bits need, or are better suited for the grid so I've got it where I need it.
I still had my benchwork that my father and I built 12 years ago, a collection of 3 tables of open gridwork that have survived 3 house moves. That was my base around which I built the rest of the layout. Armed with a list of material needs and calculations I headed to Lowes with my father inlaw to get the goods. This required me taking the booster seats out of the CRV... never much fun but a necessary evil. Fortunately I, for once, measured properly and everything fit in and an hour later I had all the stuff into the house. That was Friday night.
Saturday and Sunday were build days. I mostly used a cheap-ass mitre saw that can't cut a staight angle to save its life. Fortunately benchwork ain't fine cabinetry, so everything (roughly) worked out.
It was actually pretty cool building it, and considering the crap tools that I had to work with, it turned out pretty damn good. Bit of self back patting there. oh did I mention everything came out level !? true.
Here are the results
 |
| From Trains 2010 |
2 x 4's against two walls as braces, one is lower on purpose... that section is the 'gorge' part of the Elora Gorge. You can see one of the pre-built tables on the left
No comments:
Post a Comment