Section 4 and 5 Benchwork

Over the last couple of months I have brought Section 4 and 5 to rough completion by adding rough foam insulation board to the L-Girder benchwork. With this the layout foundation is basically complete and is now up on its legs.

Section 4 and 5 represent the north end of Beatton River siding and the curve that leads towards the Beatton River bridge on the prototype.

Section 4 is relatively simple and largely flat so was completed fairly quickly by fixing a large slab of green insulation foam to the L-Girder framework. A few smaller offcuts were used to complete it.

Section 5 was complicated by the fact that Bunnings seemed to be entirely out of the green insulation foam at all Queensland stores. I only needed one sheet of course. Rather than wait I just rounded up all my random offcuts of foam of different types (including some florist foam bricks) and patched together a pretty rough looking surface. Of course, a few weeks after patching this all together, Bunnings had foam back in stock. This time it was blue and much denser. I was used to bad supply chains in New Zealand but it seems to plague Australia too (especially building materials) so the lesson here is to buy everything you need for layout benchwork up front and not on an as-you-need it basis.

Both sections used the standard double layer of N scale on top of HO scale roadbed. They were painted with the surplus off white paint used on the other sections. With this done, the legs were installed and the sections set up in the layout room. The layout sits at 58 inches off the floor which was a deliberate choice to get that realistic near eye level viewpoint. Despite being only 8ft x 9.5ft, the layout looks quite large from this elevated vantage point. I am also pleased with the continually curving flow of the track bed which is a complete contrast to all my prior layout efforts which have been very linear and largely based on hollow core doors.

Next step is to install the front fascia to get a somewhat finished appearance. With this done and some fine tuning of the foam terrain profiles, the new year should see some track getting laid.