I know that I'm sticking to O72 for the mainlines, I don't know in this space if I can reasonably expect to have larger curves. There will doubtless be tighter curves in the mix as well, but I'd like to leave the maximum flexibility I can for running all my equipment. 
Hi John, a quick question if you have the time. 25 messages a day is a lot for you to deal with. Tim has my check and I'm on the list. What was your approx. wait time from getting on list until boxes at your front door? Our rooms are about the same size. Thanks John for your time.
Tommy
Tommy, it took a while.
I sent my original layout dimensions to Tim on 6/19/18, it took him a while to respond, and on 8/3/18 I officially placed the order. I received the benchwork on 11/21/18.
Remember, Tim was moving his shop during that time, so I suspect he lost at least a month there. Having recently moved, I can attest to how much trouble it is to get everything sorted out. 
Keep up the good work GUNS!!!!
Thanks Gunny, Yes, I first contacted Tim during his moving process. He asked me to contact him later. We did just that. Layout design, Room size, height, etc. was forwarded to Tim in his time frame. A week or two later I got his BW design back, all my questions answered and of course a bill. Upon remittance, I was told that I on the list. Gunny, I appreciate your time and effort.
Tommy
Hi John H.
I just ain't too bright at all. I should have thought to do that. You're so much smarter than I am.
My best regards.
Tommy
I apologize.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Tom has a tendency to make complex woodworking look easy.
It looks like he has more clamps on that corner than I own!
I try to make electronics look easy, but I'm not capable of making complex woodworking look easy.
You are not kidding on either count here! I have already given up on my woodworking skills. I will never be a Tom Tee, his bench work looks like fine cabinetry or furniture, great work! He has some really neat ideas too.
Now I'm trying to keep up with you on the electronics part and it's still quite a struggle! Will never be a GRJ either, but I am at least learning something and it's fun! Wood is also much heavier than the electronic parts and I am old and worn out, so that helps too.
You guys really do make these things look easy! That is until I try it myself... 
One more step along a fairly long road. Got a bunch more assembled, took a little more time as I changed my plan a bit so I had to ad-lib a bit on the assembly. All that's left is the 12 feet along the front that will have the lift-gate in the middle of it. I originally started with the lift-gate on the left, but it works better in the middle.
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Hey John
lots of progress , looks great !
Alex
Really taking shape now, looks great. Looks big too!
What did you change from the original plan? Just curious to see what was involved/how difficult changing things were from original plan? Your cross pieces look a bit different than mine, especially the lower ones. I had some angles ones on the lower parts.
I have some changes to mine coming up one of these days too, but I am going to have to order more stuff for the changes/additions.
Alex M posted:Hey John
lots of progress , looks great !
Alex
Thanks Alex, can't wait to get it all together and see a train run!
Tom, I am moving the lift-gate about three feet more centered on the front straight. This will allow my next planned expansion of a yard off the side. Here's what the original plan looked like. I'm removing some of the extra legs in the middle as I want more storage under the bench. The diagonals were only there because he was using some stuff I already had. After seeing the plan, I decided to remove those so that space under there is all open.
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I am happy for you, GunRunner and know you will enjoy your new table, etc. just like the first toy train you ever received!!!
The fun is just starting.
John that looks so good I think you should put a coat of paste wax on it
clem
I just want to put some trains on it.
Off to the home center to get your table top, get the pieces cut at the store. Easier to handle and no mess at home. Another step closer to trains on the move.
How long has it taken you to assemble the benchwork? Was it hard to assemble? Did you have help? Thanks.
Go John, go! And most importantly: Have fun!
Andre
coach joe posted:Off to the home center to get your table top, get the pieces cut at the store. Easier to handle and no mess at home. Another step closer to trains on the move.
I'm going to have some of it cut there, I have some 4x8 pieces that will just drop on as is, those just have to come down the way they are.
TrainHead posted:How long has it taken you to assemble the benchwork? Was it hard to assemble? Did you have help? Thanks.
I probably have 7-8 hours into it. Some of the time was adjusting the plan because I wanted to move the lift-gate. No help required, it's pretty easy to manage one man. The size is 20 feet long by 12.5 on the left and 10.5 on the right. There is a 2 foot jog out in the wall and I just wrapped around it.
GRJ, when you get to laying those 072 curves, check out the clearance gauge Jim Berrett made in issue #276, Feb/Mar 2015, page 85, of OGR. It's made to give you just the right amount of room on 072 curves to accommodate running a Big Boy, that needs a 3" overhang clearance from center rail on the outside of a curve, and a 2 1/4" overhang from center rail on the inside of the curve, if you ever run 21" passenger cars. Thank You Jim for that great article.
Good idea Dave, I'll check it out.
Everyone always wants to run trains John. That is why so many carpets get track indentations. I myself have some vacuuming to do by the Christmas tree before I pop any trains underneath it. I'm still not sure what I will be running. Maybe a couple different things, lol. Looking great John.
Well Dave, I’m content with being like John and waiting on Benchwork to run trains. I crawled on the floor too much before I got into engineering at 51 and chased around rugrats on my knees into my 40s. A nice easy to assemble table is the ticket! LOL
Looks good John. You made an excellent choice with Mianne benchwork. I found it easy to assemble. If I had any questions I would call Tim and he always replied. The system is flexible and user friendly. Hope you have all those beautiful locomotives I have seen on the move soon.
Mark Boyce posted:Well Dave, I’m content with being like John and waiting on Benchwork to run trains. I crawled on the floor too much before I got into engineering at 51 and chased around rugrats on my knees into my 40s. A nice easy to assemble table is the ticket! LOL
Yeah, a table would be nice. I've been on knees, stomach, back, side and sitting of the floor. I'd really like to have a seat at a table watching and operating. I'll have to wait and stay on the floor for a bit still. Someday.
Sure is going to be a nice space
luvtrains posted:Looks good John. You made an excellent choice with Mianne benchwork. I found it easy to assemble. If I had any questions I would call Tim and he always replied. The system is flexible and user friendly. Hope you have all those beautiful locomotives I have seen on the move soon.
Yep, a happy Mianne customer here.
Two words: no sawdust.
I still have to test upgrades, so there is a smallish carpet central. It's pretty basic, just enough to do more than run on rollers. I'm looking forward to when I can get this out of the way.
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It's looking great John. Really nice finished train room. Keep posting, it's great to watch the progress. Is the planned layout all on one track level, or are you planning to cookie cut the plywood and have any grades ?
John, have you got a track plan cooked up yet; just wondering? Looking good so far. 
Rod
I'm planning on some elevated track, but I won't be doing the cookie cut of the base. Still working on a final configuration, but any ideas are always welcome.
I'm hoping to have the couple bits I need to finish from Mianne in a couple of days so I can put the front on and get some plywood down. The liftgate is a little more complicated than the basic assembly, so I suspect that will slow me down a bit. I also have to get some pieces of different sized plywood just for that assembly.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Tom, I am moving the lift-gate about three feet more centered on the front straight. This will allow my next planned expansion of a yard off the side. Here's what the original plan looked like. I'm removing some of the extra legs in the middle as I want more storage under the bench. The diagonals were only there because he was using some stuff I already had. After seeing the plan, I decided to remove those so that space under there is all open.
Ok, I get it now. I have the same angles you show here (at somewhat different locations) and was just wondering what the differences were or if they had changed the arrangement. Of course your whole layout is different than mine, and bigger too, so I guess it would be somewhat different in the bracing.
If you want to make shelves using the lower cross bracing, a couple of 1" x 12"s side by side are a pretty good fit between the legs. I didn't want to mess with more plywood after getting the top on so I went the 1x12 route. Very easy and I did manage to find a few decent pieces at Home Depot. Got them screwed in place right away, before they had a chance to get all whopperjawed. Thinking I used some angle brackets on the shelves as well. I had a ton of those (one hole each end) left over from something years ago.
I did the shelving a few weeks after the initial benchwork. Tim put some extra holes in the legs for adding an additional shelf between the top and lower cross pieces so I had to order some more cross pieces and parts for those shelves.
You are looking good there with yours, coming along very nicely! I really like that shelf too, and the lift gate.
Guns,
My advise is to go slow, you have the rest of your life to work on your new layout, have fun buddy!
PCRR/Dave
Pine Creek Railroad posted:My advise is to go slow, you have the rest of your life to work on your new layout, have fun buddy!
But who knows how long that will be? I may get hit by a bus tomorrow! 
Tom, I wanted under the layout to be as uncluttered as possible. First off, it'll make it easier to do the finish-up wiring (doing some pre-wiring before the plywood goes on), and it'll also facilitate having lots of storage under the layout. That being the case, I removed those braces and the extra leg and went with open space. I also tried to orient the lower braces in such a manner as to provide maximum access to the underside of the layout. Time will tell how successful I was.
GRJ, The open spaces are nice, I was actually kind of admiring that in some of the photos. You are giving me some ideas here as well! I ended up with 2' of shelves all the way around the perimeter (except for the ends which are open) below the layout with a wide open 2' 'isle' lengthwise, right down the middle. I actually ended up with pretty good access to everything from below for now. Maybe have to move a box or two if I want to get back in to something though. Of course the expansion still hasn't yet happened so it will probably all change then.
Another difference is I have concrete floors and a mechanics stool that lets me scoot around below the layout fairly easily. Just have to watch your head in certain places. A few cross braces still have traces of hair (my hair!) on them! 
With you having carpet the stool might be a little more difficult to maneuver down there and maybe hard on the carpet? Could still be handy to have though. They are about $20 at Harbor Freight. The rectangular one is a little lower than the round one. But the more you can do before the plywood goes down the better, that's for sure.
Also, I added a string of 5m LEDs (600 LEDs) down the center space which helps me find things down there. I put a switch in a cross brace for the top, right where I go in with my stool for convenience. That works very well. You would probably need a couple of strings or more for the size of yours, but it's really handy to have while you are down there. That would be easier to install with the top off as well. It was an after though for me, after the layout had a top and running trains. Just another thought here, but I imagine you have probably already thought of all that.
The legs and lower cross braces are also good places to mount little things like light power, term strips, etc. Below is also a good place to hide things, keeps the skillet and rolling pin away from the old noggin...
rtr12 posted:gunrunnerjohn posted:Tom, I am moving the lift-gate about three feet more centered on the front straight. This will allow my next planned expansion of a yard off the side. Here's what the original plan looked like. I'm removing some of the extra legs in the middle as I want more storage under the bench. The diagonals were only there because he was using some stuff I already had. After seeing the plan, I decided to remove those so that space under there is all open.
Ok, I get it now. I have the same angles you show here (at somewhat different locations) and was just wondering what the differences were or if they had changed the arrangement. Of course your whole layout is different than mine, and bigger too, so I guess it would be somewhat different in the bracing.
If you want to make shelves using the lower cross bracing, a couple of 1" x 12"s side by side are a pretty good fit between the legs. I didn't want to mess with more plywood after getting the top on so I went the 1x12 route. Very easy and I did manage to find a few decent pieces at Home Depot. Got them screwed in place right away, before they had a chance to get all whopperjawed. Thinking I used some angle brackets on the shelves as well. I had a ton of those (one hole each end) left over from something years ago.
I did the shelving a few weeks after the initial benchwork. Tim put some extra holes in the legs for adding an additional shelf between the top and lower cross pieces so I had to order some more cross pieces and parts for those shelves.
You are looking good there with yours, coming along very nicely! I really like that shelf too, and the lift gate.
I'm following this pretty closely!!!! I'll probably build my own bench work, but I loving seeing this develop.. Also please share any insights on the lift gate!! I'm getting a bit old to deal with a duck under...........
Woodson posted:I'm following this pretty closely!!!! I'll probably build my own bench work, but I loving seeing this develop.. Also please share any insights on the lift gate!! I'm getting a bit old to deal with a duck under...........
Think of those duck unders as a form of yoga. I'm 67 and now look forward to contorting my body under the train tables to get to a derailment on the far side of the layout, etc. My attitude about exercise and stretching is if it doesn't kill you, it's good for you.
Worse thing for me is to be too sedentary. Arnold
I can still crawl under the table, but that doesn't mean I like it. I'm also figuring that in a few years I may not be able to crawl under the table to get to the center. Besides, the control panel will be in the center, so I need it to be easy to get to. Also, I might have Woodson over to play trains, and he doesn't like ducking under the table!
