05-24-2009, 02:35 PM
As you guys might have noticed, progress on my layout has been glacially slow lately. I've needed the time to screw up my courage to take down what I have done and and start over again in a better way.
What I had done initially was to be so eager to get going that I had put up a couple of shelf brackets, and then put two L-girder across all the shelf brackets, and then glued styrofoam (the blue kind) directly to the L-girders. I didn't even put any joists (cross members) across the two L-beams before gluing the styrofoam to the L-girders , and what I ended up with for the first half of my layout looked like this:
![[Image: old_bench.jpg]](http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/forum2/old_bench.jpg)
![[Image: corner01.jpg]](http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling/forum/progressive/corner01.jpg)
When I extended the layout to the last two walls, I at least put in joists - but I still had way too many joists, and I had the foam glued directly to the joists.
![[Image: DSCN3477.JPG]](http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling/forum/wfp/DSCN3477.JPG)
I over time discovered that I had made a bad error of judgement here. It was hard to work on wiring and turnout control mechanisms (since I had to work upside down under the bench, in the space between the layout shelf and the storage shelves below the layout, and it was hard to fasten a fascia well to the first part of the layout (the part missing the joists).
After a re-evaluation, I finally have decided that I don't want to keep trying overcome the effects of bad initial bench work planning.
I want to make the baseboard of the layout as a set of hollow sections, so I could take out one and one section to work on it comfortably in good light conditions, both for the initial work, and for later maintenance, changes and additions (e.g. when I get to adding lights to buildings and suchlike).
So today I finally made the leap, and it took merely an hour and a half to disassemble most of my layout down to a level where I can start rebuilding it in a better way.
Rough idea about how to build the sections so as many as possible has a fairly standard length easy to handle for a single person (40-46" long, 15-24" deep) and not too many turnouts will need to be located across the section boundaries:
![[Image: warehouse52b.jpg]](http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/forum2/warehouse52b.jpg)
I am hoping to pick up the plywood I need to make sectional baseboard units during the next week, and start rebuilding next weekend.
Smile,
Stein
What I had done initially was to be so eager to get going that I had put up a couple of shelf brackets, and then put two L-girder across all the shelf brackets, and then glued styrofoam (the blue kind) directly to the L-girders. I didn't even put any joists (cross members) across the two L-beams before gluing the styrofoam to the L-girders , and what I ended up with for the first half of my layout looked like this:
When I extended the layout to the last two walls, I at least put in joists - but I still had way too many joists, and I had the foam glued directly to the joists.
I over time discovered that I had made a bad error of judgement here. It was hard to work on wiring and turnout control mechanisms (since I had to work upside down under the bench, in the space between the layout shelf and the storage shelves below the layout, and it was hard to fasten a fascia well to the first part of the layout (the part missing the joists).
After a re-evaluation, I finally have decided that I don't want to keep trying overcome the effects of bad initial bench work planning.
I want to make the baseboard of the layout as a set of hollow sections, so I could take out one and one section to work on it comfortably in good light conditions, both for the initial work, and for later maintenance, changes and additions (e.g. when I get to adding lights to buildings and suchlike).
So today I finally made the leap, and it took merely an hour and a half to disassemble most of my layout down to a level where I can start rebuilding it in a better way.
Rough idea about how to build the sections so as many as possible has a fairly standard length easy to handle for a single person (40-46" long, 15-24" deep) and not too many turnouts will need to be located across the section boundaries:
I am hoping to pick up the plywood I need to make sectional baseboard units during the next week, and start rebuilding next weekend.
Smile,
Stein