Building Bench Work For The "new" JJJ&E

I started to build the bench work  for the "new" JJJ&E in February 2009. Before I moved into the house, a friend of mine helped me build the bench work for the "new' JJJ&E in the garage of the new house. We built nine separate modules that we pre-painted all the wood with a flat black finish.

Each 50"x50" turnaround areas were separate modules. We built two modules 30" inches wide for each side of the layout. On all the modules, I used extra sturdy legs on each module to support the bench work.

On the 12' side of the room, we built three modules 30 inches wide. when the train room was finished, we assembled the nine pre-painted modules in the room. This was the easy way to assemble the bench work. It was like putting a puzzle together. When all nine sections were assembled, I used a 3/4 inch plywood base to support four one inch sections of pink foam. Each individual piece of pink foam was glued in place with Liquid Nails that is compatible with foam. Bricks were place on the foam to keep constant weight on the foam sections. 

For the backdrop I used Vinyl Roof Flashing 24 inches wide. The Vinyl Roof Flashing comes in 50' rolls and can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowe's. I cemented the Vinyl Roof Flashing to the walls above the bench work with a Formica cement. The beauty of the Vinyl Roof Flashing is that there are no seams in the backdrop. The Vinyl Roof Flashing can also be rolled into the corners of the room. You will see this in the photo's below. I used a wood molding above the Flashing which will be painted the color of the walls. I had Lowe's mix me a blue color for the sky background. I'm not good at making clouds so clouds aren't present on the backdrop. I will use numerous backdrop buildings along the full 18 foot length of the Turntable area/Switching Yard. Backdrop buildings will also be used along the San Marino side of the layout on the far right. The windows on the Mysterious Middle Part Of the "new" JJJ&E will be covered with two 2'x4' Styrofoam boards that will be removable to get access to the windows.

On the 12' middle part of the "new" JJJ&E which I call the Mysterious Part of the "new" JJJ&E I decided to used commercial printed backdrop buildings showing an industrial area before entering the town of San Marino.

After cementing the Vinyl Roof Flashing to the walls above the train room, we started to staple in place bendable 1/4 inch fascia in the 50 inch turnaround areas and against the other modules. This fascia was sanded smooth and any defects in the wood fascia were filled in. The fascia will be painted at a later date, after all repairs to the fascia were completely dry. I left the lip of  the fascia 5/8" above the foam in order to prevent any disastrous accidents due to any derailments. I will hide that 5/8 inch lip with some scenic effects. I've done this before on other layouts of all major scales.

The left side of the bench work is 18' long. The middle part of the bench work under the windows is 12' long. The right side of the bench work is approximately 16' long. The two turnaround areas are 50'x50". The depth of the bench work is 30". All areas of the bench work are very accessible.

As you can see, I left plenty of room in the center isle to move about. Narrow isles don't work in train rooms. I have three comfortable swivel chairs in the room for siting and observing the layout.