Benchwork and Backdrop

I now have a 10'x 10'6" room to build my railroad. I have painted the walls a sky blue and have the bench work roughed in as you can see in the photos. The benchwork is mostly an open L-girder design with 1/2" plywood on top to support the foam bard. I am planing on using the foam board to allow me to sculpt terrain and finish it off with scenery so I don't have to use very much plaster to build the landscape. I am also going to be using geodesic foam scenery that I have already started using on the first layout that has now been completely scraped except for the scenery that I had built.

This is a section of the benchwork that is 30" wide and 35" high. The upper deck is 55" high and 19" wide this will all be covered by foam board and the sub roadbed will be foam as well.

This section has the foam board applied and is ready for the sub roadbed to be added. I am using a type of foam board that is not exactly what I wanted but I am hoping to get the extruded foam board that is what most modelers use. This type has a foil layer that has to be removed in order to have access to the foam to sculpt contours and ditches to give the landscape some life.

The next step is to start painting the back drop before I get to much further along and it become more difficult to paint.

Major Construction

After some thought and finally getting some time to start I have decided to start over on my layout. So I am building a railroad room in the garage to build a double deck railroad. It's a 10' x 10' room with a storage deck above it. Once the construction of the room is finished I will have to build the bench work and start laying out the roadbed for the railroad.

Very special thanks to my son Bradly! Without his help I couldn't have done this. I would still be trying how to figure out how to build the walls so I could have a storage space above the train room.
Brad hanging the joist for the storage area overhead.

This lay out is history but I will be using the scenery on the new lay out.

The goal is to have a mining and logging theme railroad set in the late 1930's using the Verde Tunnel & Smelter railroad as the main inspiration. I will have a more northwest scenic theme so it will not be a model of the Verde Valley as such. Not enough trees for me.

It will have two decks one at 35" hight and one at 54" this will allow for more railroad in less space. I want to model Hope Well and some of the smelter at Clarkdale as well as a logging branch. Maybe if I can fit it in the mainline will be Ash Fork depicting the transfer of ore from Clarkdale to the AT&SFP.