Hi all, just starting to get to the bench work stage of my HO layout as my garage is being converted next week. I'm thinking of a layout height of 130 cm/51". It will be 18" deep.

My question is what sort of distance do people leave between the top of the layout and the bottom of the facia of the shadow box?

Cheers Lee

When installing my fascia its tough to handle long thin pieces of Masonite around corners.

To assist in this I made these little brackets from scraps of plywood.  The brackets have step in them support the fascia at a standard distance below the joists and a little lip to keep the fascia from sliding off the end of the support.  All the plywood pieces are just glued together.

What is the best way to build a 6' x1' peninsula that is attached to the existing bench work at the end. Sturdy enough if the free standing end gets bumped into it won't knock the cars off the track?

I'm 'reconstructing' my layout-- moving it from an upstairs guest room to the basement in which I have better space to work with.
I built an open framework benchwork and covered it with 2" insulation board with Woodland Scenic's 'Track-bed' as my roadbed. Unfortunately this combination seemed to 'drum' or echo the sounds of the train as it passed along which I found very disconcerting.
This time around I'm considering using 2x8 sections (domino's?) which I will put together for my benchwork.