Well, I've got most of the basic benchwork finished on my future layout. Right now it's just open framework made out of 1X2s and 1X3s with a half-inch cabinet plywood top. Lots of glue and dowels and biscuits. It's 12 feet long, sort of a U-shape with the center 7 feet being 20" deep, and the two end wings 40" deep. Since I'm building in Z scale, I think I'll have enough room for a nice, long folded dogbone runner layout with lots of open scenery. The benchwork will eventually be full cabinetry, with doors and drawers, and matching wall-mounted cabinets above the layout. Lots of storage for my train stuff. Which, sadly, doesn't require a lot of storage at present... I'll post photos as soon as I finish a few details and get all of the construction debris cleared away. Which will make my girlfriend happy, as the benchwork is taking up one whole wall of my living room, minus the front door. Which is why it has to sit on nice cabinetry. And the construction debris and tools take up a good part of the rest of my living room. Which makes the girlfriend unhappy. But hey, it's my house, and she doesn't live here. But I do like to keep her happy. And clearing the couch - and access to it - is an important part of that. It's a very comfortable couch. The reason it's taken so long is because of my knee surgery, which gives me mobility and position problems. Which is what got me back into model railroading. But it means that I cannot kneel. So close-to-the-floor work is difficult. But it's getting done. I haven't even named it yet. I'm thinking something like: "Endlosen Geld Grube"
It's really kind of strange, I started out wanting to build a single track, 6' by 14", didn't I? Then I read on here that someone really enjoyed watching a fast passenger train catching up with and passing a slower freight train, and thought that that would be great, so I added an inner loop and 2" of width... And saw where someone else ran the rear tracks with a significant elevation, which looked pretty good, so widened one end for a larger diameter helical... Then asked myself, "Why not just use the entire wall?", and extended it to 12'... And then Rokuhan 245mm and 270mmR tracks became available, so the end sections got bigger... With a larger helical came a larger mountain, with room for a small mining loop high up on it, and a Marklin Prussian coal train came in the mail... I'm dying here. I think that the real reason that I decided to build the benchwork now was so that, if I couldn't keep the track plan from changing, I could at least keep the d*mned thing from growing! So after three purchases of track, here is a rough idea (Just imagine a helical on the right end, I tried to include it and got confused): The small weird loop is the mountaintop mining loop. I'm trying out both track planners, I like Anyrail better, but XtrackCad is free!
