Monk Subdivision - Raising the Benchwork

Benchwork along the wall must be remove

Due to a major drain failure back in October, a new pipe will have to go down the hobby room. To prepare the space required to install the new drain pipe, parts of the benchwork have to be temporarily dismantled. At first, I was far to be excited by the news, but in hindsight, it's an excellent opportunity to improve things a little bit.

Cutting the painted MDF backdrop in advance

As I mentioned in previous post, the track height was something that bothered me for a long time. I'm generally a fan of layouts were I can feel immersed and watching trains from the trackside. The height was quite good in Armagh, which was at 49.5 inches high. This height corresponds to the unbuilt second level staging. Since this won't be built, I had to make a choice: set the height at 45.5 inches because the current staging is at this height, or raise everything to 49.5". my first choice was to keep things as they were, but when I started to mockup scenery using my photoshoot diorama, it wasn't cutting it for me.

The raised benchwork on brackets

So today, while dismantling parts of the benchwork, I decided to raise a section under the cabinets to see how it would fare. The backdrop height was reduced and the benchwork raised on metal shelf brackets. Sure, the backdrop is now only 11-12 inches high, but the track is at the right height and the floating effect of the layout over the base cabinets is much better than before.

Mocking up a scene

I was always struggling for shelf space to put tools or materials when building this layout and this 8 inches high gap between the layout and counter top is already very useful. Sure the downside is having only 12" of vertical space which isn't ideal for photography, but I'm thinking about painting the cabinets underside in blue to blend it with the back drop.

This is about 12" high for a framed scene.

Since it worked so well, I'll need to raise the other sections. This will also provide the opportunity to replace the cumbersome swing gate with something better. And to be honest, that extra 8 inches means that having a duck under in this area is much more acceptable. I'm currently exploring the idea of building a lightweight movable section and maybe even recycle an old lauan plywood module that was built many, many years ago for the Temiscouata Railway layout.

Good lighting will be required to make it pop!