I have built my current layout on metal bench work. I must admit yours looks very sturdy and very thought out, nice layout too.
As I said I got tired of cutting wood, drilling holes, carrying lumber, sweeping up saw dust so I decided on an alternative when I saw portable work bench kits at Lowes. I suspect all of the big box hardware stores sell a similar product.
They are easy to assemble right out of the box, takes about ten minutes. No screws, no cutting, everything fits together.
This is a completed table, you can see the slide joints at each corner with a plywood tabletop and a shelf for storage below.
Close up of one corner and you can see how the legs just slide in to support the top and shelf.
This is a corner where several tables come together, I run bolts through the leg to give the tables some stability.
After lashing the tables together I apply sheets of blue foam, 2' by 4' which becomes the base then I apply the blue sill seal material which comes in large rolls for the track bed after cutting it in 2 inch strips, I adhere it to the blue foam table top with white caulk as I did with the blue foam track bed. The track then goes on top of the thin blue insulation using white caulk.
I did creat some gaps between tables for scenery as I did here with a bridge running over a river,
It's an around the wall layout and you run trains from inside so I created a lift out, but I just duck under to get inside.
The layout actually measures 12' X 14', and it is set up for continuous running and I like that. No time tables, no car cards, I just run trains from many different roads.
The table height is 3 feet off the gound, I can sit in a desk chair with wheels and move around with a walk around throttle to run the trains.
As you see I have plenty of storage space under the tables and it help to keeps the room fairly neat.
I have begun to add some fascia with thin fiber board to clean up the appearance, it will eventually be painted a light earth tone.
This an aireal over-view of the layout. Lots of buildings but I like that, and I like just watching the trains run. I have so much rolling stock, engines, passenger cars, and frieght cars that I can change things when I want too and run all kinds of train.
of trains.
Well, that's my metal bench work. Easy to set up, after the track was laid I drilled holes around the layout and soldered track leads every three or four feet and soldered the wires to the buse line underneath, so I have good electrical contact all of the way around the layout. Believe it or not I had all of the tables built, foam foundation, track roadbed and track wired in about two or three days. Over the last two years I have been adding buildings, details, streets, street and building interior lighting, and signals and they all work.
My objective has been to run a nice, yet small railroad and have fun. It has worked out pretty well.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line, SC