Benchwork

Welp, this one took longer to get to than I expected…

A good bit has happened since November on the railroad. This seems like a good time to catch up.

Benchwork

Possibly the easiest part of the layout for me, the benchwork is complete. I’m not a carpenter, nor do I have any illusions of becoming one, so I made use of some pre-designed benchwork that I just had to assemble. Model Railroad Benchwork had the modules I was looking for in the exact size I needed, so, over the course of a few months, I ordered and assembled their table assemblies. Now, I have 4 fully assembled, stained, and sealed tables, all the same size, and all four line up perfectly.

Following staining to match the existing furniture and assembly of the base table, I started working on the surface for each. I knew each table was getting a piece of 1 inch foamboard on top, with space cut out around the rim of each table to allow for the legs supporting what will be the glass tops of the tables and some trim wood around the side to make it look nicer (fun or not, it still needs to look presentable when folks come over to play board games).

I actually got to test the tables for a game night back in January. They were rock solid, no problems whatsoever.

A Brief Intro

Like the majority of modelers, my interest started with a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood with an HO scale double loop in the garage of my parent’s house. Like many I’ve read stories from, that interest got put on hold until I finally got space of my own. Now that I’ve got the space and the time to work on it, I’m jumping back in to the hobby, this time in N scale.

After much thought and some false starts, I decided to combine two of my favorite activities into one - model railroading and board games. I’ve seen lots of stories where people build model layouts in coffee tables, and thought “why can’t I do something in a larger table?” Thus the idea was born - a gaming table layout, sized to fit the kind of board games I play (mostly the ones that take longer to setup than to actually play).

The layout is set in the Appalachians during the transition era (though I expect at some point some more modern equipment will make an appearance as well). It’ll be a modular layout sized to fit through the hallways in my house, made up of four 30x36 inch modules. It’s designed for continuous running, but also with provisions to connect to a larger around the wall layout at a later time.

The layout is anchored by a large yard (currently Mountain View Yard, though city names are still subject to change). There’s connections on layout for a logging camp, a mountain resort, and a construction site, plus the town of Clearwater with it’s associated industries. The entire layout is just big enough to offer some interesting operations possibilities (especially for a single operator), while still being small enough to move around my layout room/rec room.

The next post will probably catch up on benchwork construction (spoiler - thanks Model Railroad Benchwork for saving me the struggle of building my own) and talk through plans and control schemes.