Benchwork in prep for bridges

Nice work and great planning!

Personally, I think you need more clamps!

Tom your benchwork is so well done it’s a shame to cover it with scenery. Looking at your pictures. Long sweeping single track on an elevation. With careful planning. You can maximize a sheet of plywood so there’s little wasted. Just wondering if you ever used spline roadbed ? I’ve seen some pics. and also some videos of it. Mostly HO layouts. It seems like it would work well in what you were showing. If you are planning on covering the wood roadbed with homesote anyways. Why don’t we see more layouts built this way ?  Is it just to much involved cutting the splines and blocks versus the cost savings.

@Dave_C posted:

Why don’t we see more layouts built this way ?  Is it just to much involved cutting the splines and blocks versus the cost savings.

I dare say that is probably because there are not that many people with Tom's skills!  If I attempted building something like that, the pictures would be totally different!

Beautiful work, Tom.

I'm always impressed by your craftsmanship!

Jim

Once again I have basement envy. Once again I have to remind myself that I also have no snow.

Thank you  guys.   However the skill set is rather basic.   In fact, when  I was doing GRJ's layout I skipped a day or two and noticed that John had continued where I left off after just watching me for a few days.

Quick detail suggestions:

Basic things that can help are sharp blades,  fresh 100 grit sand paper, hand, eye & ear protection. 

A starter tool crib with a (Bosch) jig saw, 5" oscillating sander,  18ga pneumatic brad gun,  10"  chop saw with a new 60 or 80 tooth blade, couple of nice 3' or 4'  levels,  a decent shop vac w/ hepa filter  and a small contractor table saw with a good fence and same blade as the chop saw. 

For supplies consider Titebond III and premium poly urethane adhesive and construction screws instead of drywall screws.

For decking, quality 1/2" X 60" X 60" multi ply Birch and 3/8" barrel bendable laun 2 ply plywood for the fascia.  Bendable plywood is available bending either in the length (barrel) or in the width (column) .

Portland feathering patch for panel seams of top acoustical layer.

Adjustable Monoco levelers from Outwater Plastics in NJ.

Mianne can be a good basic quick built foundation however Model Railroad Curved Benchwork can provide a flowing layout perimeter with no straight lines at about the same net cost.

We used Mianne because John had started with it.  However after we installed the decking there were no tangent lines left.

You might like to spend some time flipping through the screens of GRJ's benchwork build in 2019.  John recorded a lot of benchwork construction on pages 12 thru 20.

Oh, do not forget the clamps.

@RoyBoy posted:

Once again I have basement envy. Once again I have to remind myself that I also have no snow.

Roy,  Same here, I too have been reminded of snow at times.   Any more I just let it melt when ever it wants to.  I'm in the train room 72 degrees X 365  days.

Dave, I have used spline roadbed many years ago.  Using 1 1/2 X 1/4" porch lath in 16' lengths plus 1/2" X 1 1/2" X 8' strips of Homasote.  Splines can do a nice job but can be a tad rigid for alterations.

I also found that curve radii and spiral easements were easier to layout on solid plywood.

Using plywood can be rather economical when you figure your cuts ahead of time.  Plus I rarely throw any plywood "scrap" away.  There is a place for most all cutoffs when doing benchwork especially with cookie cutter risers, control panels and hard shell scenery foundations and stringers.

Another use of"scrap" is the many one time jigs I make for repeatable construction steps.

@Tom Tee posted:

Oh, do not forget the clamps.

LOTS OF CLAMPS!