The Benchwork

The bench work shortly after completion of the main Railway station section of the layout, I was using some old HO scale roco track to get an idea of space for the layout, i obviously have plenty. The shed for many many years has been used to store old furniture which i had to rearrange to find the space to start the construction. The room i have between the end of the bench and the side of the stored furniture is not very much so working conditions aren't ideal! The layout is a dog-bone on L shaped bench work with two levels. The main section of the table is 7000mm long by 900mmwide, the end past the foreground of the above picture drops below the top deck 200mm and does a full 180 turn and then returns to the other end on a lower level. The far end has another bench which branches off to the left of the photo (not constructed in above photo) this similarly does a 180 turn and drops down 200mm to the lower level. Each end section of the table is 1300mm x 1300mm allowing for a 180 turn with 22″min radius. The entire bench work is constructed from materials from Bunnings. Structural pine was screwed to the framework of the shed with large metal brackets, atop the brackets is more structural pine creating a frame which supports the particleboard sheets, the offcuts from the sheets are used as a backboard which will later have scenery painted onto it. There are three sheets in total along the main section of the table and one for the far end. The lower level is skirting board pine 200mm across supported by small brackets attached to the underside of the framework. It is wide enough for 3 tracks.