Getting Organized

To build the new / better bench work I spent some time this year buying a few more tools and building a hobby work bench on castors that I can roll in and out of my garage. The tools and work bench are not just for model railroading though. I hope to progress to building furniture pieces and other items for my home and learn another skill.

The work bench is approx 4' x 8' constructed of ripped 3/4" plywood sheets and a melamine top. 6 heavy castors are attached to the base. The bench is designed with inset router table, table saw, mitre saw, and pedestal for a drill press. The tools are able to share one surface as all the cutting / drilling surfaces are level with each other. I built a dust collection system into it that does a decent enough job of keeping dust down. There's a planer in the bottom beside the shop vac that i plan to build a longer infeed / outfeed table for. I'll purchase and drill mounting holes for a joiner in the future.

Not seen in these pictures are the drill press and the mitre saw. I took them off the bench to cut large sheets for the bench work.

One thing I'm learning is that you need to make a lot of different jigs for projects if you want to do them well. The jigs often become projects of their own.

The Design

The bench work is sectional, using a combination of plywood 'C' style  and L-girder construction. The material is 3/4" plywood ripped into strips or cut into solid 'C' shapes. Only the legs are dimensional lumber (2 x 2 and 1 x 2).

The sub-roadbed is 1/4" cork on 1/2" plywood with 1/4" hardboard strip at the section edges for gluing PC ties to. The 'ceiling', backdrop, valence, and fascia are 1/4" hardboard. There is a small strip of 3/4" plywood with a 30º angle for mounting LED strips.

The valance, fascia, backdrop and 'ceiling' are part of the structural integrity of the section holding the plywood 'C's in place and reducing any sag between supports in the sub-roadbed. This makes construction simple 'ish' and lightweight 'ish'.

The 'C's at section ends are screwed together and holes for alignment dowels, bolts, and wires are drilled with a drill press before assembly to ensure proper alignment.

The end state will see an uninterrupted fascia, valance and view across the entire front of the layout (unlike my previous layout with vertical support posts at section edges).

The pictures below are the first section I built to refine what I wanted to do and how I would build the rest. It's still missing a few elements but gives a good idea of where I'm going.

I want to achieve a shadow box effect with LED lighting, black valance / fascia, and inset black skirting mounted to the L-girder behind the fascia.

Cutting 'C's

Here's how I cut the C's with a table saw and then finish off with a jig saw. The photo below shows the cutting of the end piece for the 30" removable extension  above the interchange yard (not shown in the track plan).

The C's are 3" thick on the vertical and horizontal on the straight bench work sections to support their 20 3/4" cantilever. They are 4" thick on the vertical and 3" on the horizontal on the corner sections to support 29 1/2" cantilever.

The bench work narrows to 9 1/2" deep (including 3" thick 'C' support) at the extension.

The 3/4" plywood is 7 ply (smooth both sides), making the 3 and 4" inch thick cantilever design strong enough to act as shelving without sag.

I made each 'C' on the straight sections 23 1/2" high by 23 3/4" wide to get 8 'C's per 4 x 8 sheet, saving money and material. The interior cut-outs of the 'C's will be used for other projects.

Backdrop Supports

Gluing (and later screwing) supports for the curved backdrop of the two corner sections.

I drew the 44 1/2" radius curve for the back drop on both the 'ceiling' and sub-road bed using a radius tool nailed into a piece of wood clamped to my work bench at the right distance (photo below).

Progress

Well, Joe, it looks like you are making some great progress on layout building, keep up the good work.

Finished 'C' Brackets

Finished drilling the bolt and alignment dowel holes for all the 'C' brackets today. After a bit of sanding, all the 'C's will be done.

Alignment Dowels

The last step before unscrewing the section ends from each other for assembly is to glue in alignment dowels.

Cutting 1 1/2" x 3/8" dowels (24 in total - 4 per section joint - 2 top and 2 bottom):

Rounding one side of the dowels with a sanding drum on the drill press and the dowel mounted in a drill:

The square end of the dowels will be glued while the round end will insert into holes in adjoining sections.

Now on to L-girder construction which will improve the rigidity of each section and provide a mounting surface for the already built legs.

Layout design

Joe: I am going to make a suggestion that you cove the top of the backdrop and ceiling sections of your design. This will eliminate a hard corner that you do not see in nature, and allow you to continue the color that you choose for your sky up in a seamless fashion. 

Don

Coved Corner

Don,

The coved corners you have on your layout look great. That would make my backdrop look a lot better but I think it's more work than  it's worth in my case.

The cove may be a bit beyond my skill level and it will be difficult to match coves cleanly at section joints.

Also, at my height I can only see the ceiling of my sections beyond the valance when I'm close to the layout. When I'm that close I'm operating or looking slightly down at objects.

I will use a little bit of caulking to soften the corner and fill any gaps before painting though. That looked alright to me on my last layout.

Thanks for the feedback.

Dimensional Plywood?

What type of plywood are you using for the fronts and "C"s.  Are you using cabinet grade dimensional plywood?

Plywood

Ken,

The plywood is 3/4" sanded pine (7 ply's) from my local Home Depot store. I don't believe its cabinet grade (although I'm not a carpenter and I don't know much about wood working) but its not the cheapest option either.

I cut a test 'C' and tested it for strength before building the rest of the bench work. Even without a 1/4" backdrop and ceiling glued to it, it resists compression / sagging very well. It may even be over built as I've seen other designs here like Bill Bs WSLCo layout (which inspired this bench work design), made out of 1/2" cabinet grade plywood.

The interior vertical dimension of the 'C' once sub-roadbed, and ceiling is attached is 16 3/4". The cantilever when backdrop is attached is 20 1/2". Outside dimensions of the 'C' are 23 3/4" wide by 23 1/2" high.

Alignment Success

I've finished cutting most of the bench work pieces and have started assembly. Section 2 has now joined section 1. This area of the layout is for the wood yard, recovery boiler, kraft mill and bleach plant.

The extra time and effort has paid off and the alignment dowels have done their job. No sanding required!

Here's hoping the rest of the sections come together this well.

Progress

Completed section 3 and 4. All the pieces for the rest of the bench work are cut now but assembly of section 5 and 6 will take a little longer than the others as my holidays are coming to an end.

Great start Joe...

I'll be following along with your blog with much interest, I also have a paper mill on our layout that will be the next scenery project once all of my detection & signaling is completed.

Your bench work is a great start, and really like the design you have come up with.  Lots of switching in that design!

Cheers, Jas...

Paper mill track plan

Hi Joe,

I have been following your posts on DOMTAR with great interest, as i am also in the process of planning a paper mill on my Pacific Northwest home layout here in the UK. Research from over here can prove somewhat difficult at times and MRH is a huge help!

I seem to remember you mentioning in an earlier blog that your trackplan is done in XTrackCad. I find your latest iteration to be very pleasing to the eye and obviously well thought out from an operations viewpoint. Is there any chance you could post the trackplan file either on here or to my personal email? I would love to play around with it in my current space and see what I can come up with.

Your benchwork is looking stunning and I'm looking forward to following your further progress.

Regards, John

Yep, good design.

That is what we did for my modular layout. It's free standing, no holes in the walls.

Bill.

Comments

Bill B,

I credit your design for inspiring mine a few posts up. I spent a lot of time looking at your blog posts while I was planning my bench work. It's a great way to do sturdy, portable shadow boxes with no posts obstructing the view.

Jas,

Thanks. I'll be watching your scenery progress. It's going to take me a while to get to that stage.

Track Plan

John,

I'll gladly send you the XtackCAD file. I don't know how to post the file here and the 'contact' tab doesn't show up when I click on your user name. Try clicking on my username and send me a private message. I'll reply with the XtrackCAD file. The file is mostly correct but the 'Control' layer is blank (used to have some tortoise and control panel locations but I deleted them) and the 'Bench Work' layer is a little inaccurate.

Complete

Last of the sections are complete and bolted together. Next up - installing LED lighting.

Let There Be Light!

I started re-installing LED lights on the bench work this weekend. I salvaged all the components from the last layout and was able to re-adhere the used LED strips using some 3M spray adhesive.

Looking good. Best scene

Looking good. Best scene ever.    Glad to see the plan progressing. 

Let me know if you want some river side proto photos of the mill in West Point, which I think you said you are loosely basing your layout on.

Photos

I always dreamed of building a layout to showcase my railroad junk

I'll definitely take some photos of that mill! I'm only basing the operations on the West Point mill, but good photos of any mill are great for building proto-freelance structures. The layout is inspired by a now demolished mill near my home town, but the West Point mill was the only one I could find a lot of operational detail for readily online.

I Like

Joe, I like your quote, that has to be a classic-- " I always dreamed of building a layout to showcase my railroad junk "   That is so true, for us our railroad is a treasure, but for the rest of the world it seems like junk to them.

Small Progress

LED lights are all wired up. I ended up using a toggle switch that I had on hand for control. The dimming switch I bought for my previous layout couldn't handle the amps of more LEDs and I don't really need its functions anyway.