New Benchwork taking shape

The new benchwork is installed and almost complete. It is 48" from the floor with a shelf 19" above the main level which will be where the railroad will be. I have installed vinyl flooring as a backdrop that I will paint with scenery. The lighting is rope light that is going to provide light for operations when the layout is completed

This is the new brackets for the benchwork. The horizontal boards are 3/4" cabinet grade plywood screwed to the wall where the studs are. The shelf brackets are also made of 3/4" plywood with the bottom bracket 22" deep and the top bracket for the shelf and lighting valance are 18" deep.
The sub layer is 1/2" plywood that will be covered with 1" blue foam. The background is vinyl flooring mounted with the back facing outward for painting.
Here you can see the vinyl flooring as it is clamped as the glue dries.

The background will be painted blue and have scenery painted to give depth to the scene. The white line in the backdrop is where the vinyl is spliced. I have used vinyl spackling to fill in the seam and it's sanded and ready for painting.

The shelf is 22" deep and will be covered by blue foam which can be shaped for scenery. The white line is the vinyl spackling that needs to be sanded.
There will be a valance around the top that will hide the rope light and finish off the shelf.
One of the reasons for redoing the layout was to allow for the desk I use as a workbench to be in the same room as the layout. This allows for working on locomotives as well as rolling stock and building structures for the layout in a climate controlled room.

Starting over

After several days of thought I finally decided that the layout was not going to work the way it was being built. There was not any real purpose to operating and after deciding to do away with helix there was no real purpose to having the incline that ended up going no where.

Here I have removed the track and DCC control system. Getting ready to remove the section of benchwork so I can start installing the new benchwork.

After cutting through the foam board this section is ready to be removed. All of this section will be removed and the new benchwork will be installed in it's place.

This is the new benchwork design. The lower shelf will be 48" in height and 24" deep. The upper bracket's are 18" deep and are for the valance to mount the lighting for the layout as well as a storage shelf on the top.