Rank beginner needing help with benchwork

What scale are you working in? If N, then you could use a cheap door instead of a 4x8 plywood -- a little smaller and easier to negotiate with. I'm surprised you can only find 1/2" styrofoam. Check the lumber aisle at some place like Home Depot -- it's sold for insulation. Make sure you get the kind that's all one piece, rather than the kind made up of a lot of individual "bubbles" (usually pink or blue in colour -- I don't think the colour makes any difference for our purpose).

-- Kizhe

There are several companies that make modular benchwork, and they advertise in Model Railroader. I am using the Mianne benchwork. It is excellent.

HO.

That's exactly where I was looking. Of course, I do live in Texas and it's possible insulation of that thickness is just not needed here, but in any case 1/2" is all I've found so far.

Robert

You glue the sheets of 1/2 insulating foam together using a _water-based_ contact cement. Ask the buklder's supply store what to use.

BTW, you'll still need "basic carpentry skills" -- you know, measuring with a tape, sawing/cutting reasonably straight line, and applying glue. :-)

I suggest reading some books. The following book will answer your question. It assumes only that you can use a measuring tape, saw a reasonably straight line, and drive screws with a screwdriver. Oh, yeah, and apply glue. :-)

How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork, Kalmbach Publishing ISBN

0-89024-418-9, $19.95

The following will answer the benchwork questions, as well as questions you haven't asked yet:

HO Scale Model Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby, Kalmbach Publishing, ISBN 0-89024-575-4, $19.95

Basic Model Railroading: Getting strated in the Hobby, Kalmbach Publishing, ISBN 0-89024-334-4, $16.95

A well stocked public library will have these and similar books (including older, out of print books, which are just fine for basic information, which has chnaged very little over the years.)

PS: I'm sure that a neighbour or friend would be happy to help you in the carpentry department. Who knows - (s)he may turn out to be wannabe model railroader, too.

HTH&GL

Ah, Horribly Oversized ;-). Yes, a door is too small; 4x8 is sort of the minimum for an oval in HO.

Whereas I'm in Ottawa, Canada. I can see how there might be a cultural difference that way ;-).

AFAIK, the main reason for using foam is to allow you to add a bit of below-track scenic relief. Lots of layouts (especially newbie ones) look like the tracks are running across the Mojave salt flats. There are very few places on earth that are *that* flat -- even the Prairies have a gentle undulation to them (not to mention water-courses small and large). Using an easily-carved base makes it easy to create those kind of landforms. So I think the decision of how thick to make your foam depends on how deep you want to carve. 1/2" = 43" in HO. Your choice.

-- Kizhe

Robert wrote: I have been fascinated with model railroads my whole life and I think it is time to try making one of my own. My problem is that I have essentially no woodworking skills and the thought of constructing the kind of benchwork I've been reading about is just too daunting. I need a way to create a tabletop for my trains that I can put together quickly and easily. I might try learning basic carpentry later, but I can't start off with it. One suggestion I've read was gluing 2" of extruded polystyrene to a piece of plywood, then putting the whole thing on saw horses. Aside from only being able to find polystyrene in 1/2" thickness, this would seem a good solution for me. How well would this approach work? Should I glue 4 boards together to get 2 inches, or is half an inch sufficient?

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Here's the method I use to build my benchwork:

Two good Model Railroader Books that will prove worthwhile:

"How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork":

"Basic Model Railroad Benchwork":

These books are 32% off list and there is free shipping on orders over $25.

Good luck with your model railroad!

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

I used Clear Liguid Nails, worked great.

YUP!

[snip ... all comments agreed with] 1/2" of foam on 3/8" plywood worked ok for me. I used the Woodland Scenic inclines and risers where the rails were going on that foam base. Ok, it's N but, should work for HO as well. Pretty quiet. Then I got completly consumed at the club and it hasn't progress beyond that.

"

"

There is a video (that the LHS rents out) by Woodland Scenics that describes the technique fairly well.

Good luck and enjoy. Paul

Yes, that will work quite well, as long as you have a wood base beneath it for support.

As a matter of fact, it will make creating rivers and terrain even easier, if you choose to do so. Keep the bottom 1" as the base layer and build up from there, cutting the layers to form the scenery profile as you go.

Plan ahead and save some later work.

You might even consider constructing a small model of your layout, using foam board (the thick poster board stuff at craft stores) to simulate the layers and printed track/switch templates to play with.

You can get a very good idea if something will work (or not work) and how it will look - before cutting the more expensive stuff.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Robert wrote: [...]

Oh it's needed, all right. Insulation keeps heat _out_ as well as in.

When I first visited TX about 8 years ago, I couldn't understand why my daughter's airconditioned house wasn't insulated. It was 100 F outside, and the poor system had to work practically continuously to keep the inside temp at 80F. Wierd, to say the least. The amount of electricity wasted on account of this southern States blind spot must be staggering.

Thanks for all of your responses. It looks like my initial plan of taking a sheet of plywood and gluing polystyrene foam to it will work fine. I don't really expect to be doing a lot in the area of making creeks and ditches, at least not yet, so I might just use 1/2 or 1 inch instead of 2 inches. For support I have a couple of speaker boxes that might work, otherwise I can get a couple of sawhorses.

At some point I might decide to attempt building a wood structure, but I'm not going to try that until I get some experience actually playing with the trains. :-)

I already have a couple of books I've been reading for reference, notably the "HO Model Railroading Handbook" by Robert Schleicher, and I am going to look for "HO Model Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby" and anything else that looks useful.

No doubt you'll be hearing from me again. :-)

Robert

Robert wrote:

trains

in article snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, Robert at snipped-for-privacy@fc.net wrote on 1/12/05 14:09:

Robert,

If possible, find and join a club in your area. The brain trust (i.e., collection of skills) is worth the dues you pay, and basically worth its weight in gold.

Dieter Zakas

Keep in mind that plywood -- even 3/4" thickness -- will tend to sag between the support points. NOT good for a model RR. So you may want to include some lengthwise stiffening, say a couple of 2x4s on edge, under the sheet.

Energy /used/ to be cheap...my parent's house in Florida was designed to be heated just a few days a year. Insulation would have added $600 to the cost, so they did without, and just burned a little more oil. Air conditioning didn't come along for us for another 20 years.

I was just about to post the same thing. And if he doesn't use the saw horses, he'll need some horizontal bracing, too.

And then all he has to do is add a few angle braces to keep the 2X4's in place, a few more to secure those to the plywood,and voila! he has done benchwork without calling it that!

See, Robert? It's easier than you think.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Either you are being facetious or you have no idea how intimidating what you have just described sounds to me. :-)

I have another question. After I have a tabletop with polystyrene on the top, whatever method I end up using to get there, should I do anything else to it before I start laying track (assume I'm using something like E-Z Track)? What I mean is, should it be painted first, or papered over?

Thanks,

Robert

Either you are being facetious or you have no idea how intimidating what you have just described sounds to me. :-)

I have another question. After I have a tabletop with polystyrene on the top, whatever method I end up using to get there, should I do anything else to it before I start laying track (assume I'm using something like E-Z Track)? What I mean is, should it be painted first, or papered over?

Thanks,

Robert

Pick up a copy of "How to Build Model Train Layouts" or something like that. It should be on your local news stand. It waas put out by Model Railroader this month and is very compete on how to get started. It even has a DVD that demonstrates the building process.

John

When I started, I mangled lots of wood. Give it a go. All you're out is a few bucks.

I lay my track first.

One of then first things I'd do after getting the track laid down is to paint that God-awful pink/blue a nice neutral tan or green. You'd be surprised how big a difference that simple act makes.

Take a look and imagine it in pink...

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"