I have procured my HCD's for my L shaped N Scale layout, but I have no clue what to put them on for support. I thought of Folding Table legs, but I feel like that is way too low. I need them to be semi mobile as I am in a rented aparment, but I also want stability and reasonable working height. Suggestions?
I've seen people put them on shelving units. If you use those adjustable shelves you can set it however high you want. On my old N scale layout I just used a pair of plastic saw horses. It worked great. You could also buy kitchen cabinets to go under them as storage. I found that doors are great because they are heavy enough to keep you from knocking it around easily, yet light enough to move.
I used folding table legs from ACE Hardware, but although mine are normal height, I added 4" of foam to the table for the basic track level. I have an additional 16" atop that for more scenery. My HCD layout is quite vertically-oriented. I don't have my track level measurement handy, but can get it if you like.
One route is to use a leg bracket like this at each corner. These can be bought straight or angled. Then screw on legs of a height to suit.
Your local big "box" store should have several choices in sawhorses. From inexpensive plastics to very sturdy folding metal. The latter about $60.00 USD a pair.
On one of my HCD projects I fastened 1x4's around the perimeter of the door by using adhesive and screwing them at the corners where there is support. Then I made "L" shaped legs out of 1x4's and screwed them to the 1x4's at the corner. This allowed me to make the height at a level I was comfortable with, usually at 48". Sorry, I no longer have or can't find the pictures. Regards, Charles
Check out the Kalmbach book "N Scale Model Railroading Getting started in the hobby". In it are the two articles on building the Model Railroader Magazine Carolina Central HCD project layout. It shows how to use folding legs on your HCDs including mounting them and extending the legs with 20" pieces of 1" electrial conduit on page 81 of that book. If you do a Google search for "Carolina Central folding table legs", it will pull up a books.google.com page for the Kalmback book and one of the chapters previewed is "Building the Carolina Central 1" which shows how to do it in that chapter. HTH
