This and the three following sections on benchwork comes from Frank Kastenholz, who as an introduction writes this:
I'm going through the process of building a railroad right now. I thought that as I went through the process I'd journal any hints and the like that I've discovered during construction.
As of 17 April 1994, I've got a design complete, and I have the L-Girders, legs, major joists (i.e. enough to hold everything together under the 'stresses' of construction), and plywood 'surfacing'
is in place. I've chosen to build using the 'cookie cutter' method on a plywood base. I'm using plywood because I couldn't find any Homasote. I'm doing cookie cutter for two reasons:
1)I do not have enough space to set up a second work-area to cut roadbed strips out of the plywood -- with cookie cutter I can put the plywood on top of the joists and cut it in site.
2)I'm doing an urban setting so most everyplace will have horizontal surfaces anyway.
As of 17 May, the benchwork is pretty much done. I still have some trimming and minor adjusting to do, as well as adding any supports or joists that I find that I need.
As of 13 June, the main line (cork roadbed and track) is in place and I am starting to thoroughly test the track.
As of 6 July, I've thoroughly tested the mainline trackwork and have started working on the wiring.
Layout design
Benchwork - Tools, Girders, and Legs
Benchwork - Joists, Risers, and Roadbed
Comments
From Lennart Elg
In his excellent comments on layout design, Frank Kastenholz stresses the need to leave room for errors etc. I could not agree more, but in my experience, leaving a margin of 15 - 20 cms around the
room is too little:
It may take care of drawing errors etc, but unless you possess super-human self-control, you are still likely to end up with a plan overcrowded with nice ideas you cannot bear to leave out.
My advice is more drastic: If you want to model in HO, design the best O scale layout that fits your room, make sure you are happy with it, and only as the last step convert the layout to HO - and
this is important ! - do not fall for the temptation of introducing a single extra building or track!! Sidings will suddenly seem to be of realistic length, buildings can be reasonably sized etc.