I’m working on my track plan and curious if anyone has used the Mianne Benchwork or is just better to build either open grid or L Girder benchwork?
The only layouts I have ever made have been table top layouts so this is a new adventure for me to make a layout with grades/mountains/lakes/etc.
Due to the rolling stock/passenger cars I have I need to have a minimum of 24" radius, but only have a 9x11 room and two doorways to deal with. I will doing this in HO scale.
Whether it is benchwork, scenery or anything else to do with the hobby, don’t get stuck on doing things one way. You can use different methods on the same layout if the situation presents itself. One suggestion if I may, you are not building to hold up refridgerators, waterbeds or other household items, just a few pounds of trains and scenery, so don’t go overboard on the lumber.
I do open grid with 2x2 or 2x3 legs. I use 1x4 lumber for the outer frame, and 1x3 for the cross pieces inside. Then I put 2-inch foam inside the frame. I like to keep it simple, and that’s about as simple as it gets.
LION uses both open grid and table top. Indeed some features such as yards are built on a “mini-table” and then the whole mini-table is mounted on the layout in one peice.
Mostly I like “table top” construction if you forget the fact that I am not building on the table top, but only use it to support the risers that are holding up the sub roadbed above. LION can then use scraps of 2" foam to support the trackways.
This used to be two 3’ wide open grid tables, now pushed together to make one 6’ wide island. I cannot access the middle, but never had any intention to do so.
Here are some foam riser supporting a hidden trackway, part of the helix system on this part of the table.
This is the “armpit” of the railroad. Here five levels are hidden against the window wall, and while there are five stations back here, this part is not open to the public. You can see the “mini-table” on the very top level. The two intermediate levels were added as part of a helix, one level going up and the other level going down.
Along the east and south walls is the three level “back 40”, forty feet of track that is attached at either end to the islands which have the helxii on them. Behind the blue house you can see the “bents” that hold up the three levels. The top level is 12" wide and is flush with the back wall, the middle and lower levels are 16" wide and are offset from the wall by the width of the bents. The bents have a brace running against the wall, so a wiring space behind the bents. The bents extend to the floor, resting on another brace, all of the weight of th
I use Sievers benchwork. It’s available in various lenths and widths and is precut with drilled and countersunk holes and included hardware for rapid, easy assembly. I top each section with 1/2" plywood and use Woodland Scenics risers to gain elevation where required. I stain and polyurethane the benchwork and paint the plywood, on each side, both for appearance and to help prevent warpage over time.
My benchwork has evolved a bit. When I started, I built one large table (5x12 feet) on casters. Since then, my sections have been getting smaller. I built these for the first part of my staging yard:
In place in the train room:
I’ve since added two more long, narrow sections:
I hesitate to call these “modules,” as they’re not interchangeable, but I’ve built them to be easily relocated. (I’ve just retired, and moving out of this oversized house will be in our future.) To make this easier, I’ve used terminal blocks for wiring between sections and maintained a color code for wiring so disassembly and reassembly should go very quickly.
The prefab benchwork may save some time, but costs a lot more. I think it is best for people who don’t have the tools and don’t want to be bothered by it.
Use and mix open grid, table top, L girder depending on your needs. One option is to do a tabletop and pile on foam insulation boards where needed. Woodland Scenics makes some foam inclines.
I am using Sievers benchwork. I have a large layout and I’m not much of a carpenter. Besides, after finishing my basement, I didn’t want to do more carpentry. Siever’s uses high quality wood - no warps, splinters, etc. and it is easy to assemble. With a few extra hands, the benchwork was up in a weekend.
We built the rectangular and irregular sections first.
Then, we laid them out on the floor before putting legs under them
Double-deck section that holds staging yards.
I used poplar risers and masonite splines where the mainline moves through mountainous scenery.
Where the layout is flat, I used 1/2 plywood and 1/2 inch Homasote. With all of the support, I’m not sure I needed the plywood.
Both Mianne and Sievers make a quality product. I’ve seen both products at train shows multiple times over the years and I don’t think you can go wrong with either.
HOWEVER, they are both expensive and a bit light in construction. (Although the benchwork doesn’t have to be too heavy. HO/N scale layouts and trains don’t weigh all that much ) Mianne for example is $279 for a basic 4x6.
I think you’re better off building your own. You don’t need a lot of tools and the raw lumber is much cheaper. If you’re a beginner or a bit unsure on where to start, our hosts at Kalmback publish a book “Basic model railroad benchwork, the complete photo guide” by Jeff Wilson. I think it would give you the confidence to build your own. It includes tools and material list. Worth a read, even if you ultimately decide to purchase Mianne.
You could save a bunch of money that you could use to purchase trains.
If money is no object, sure, go with the comercial stuff, or better yet, have someone build it for you. If you are budget minded like many of us, the the common open grid using 1x4 framing works pretty well!
I haven’t used Mianne benchwork but have used Siever’s for my past two layouts. Very high quality and the savings in time definitely made up for the expense for me.
You sound like model railroading is a chore to you. I found designing and building the benchwork as enjoyable as doing anything else associated with the hobby.[C):-)]
LION paid nothing for benchwork (if you do not count the broken finger that I almost sawed off). Plendy of lumber down at the barn, grab a truck, bring some up, finish it in the wood shop, and then bring it up to the train room. How hard is that.
Alas, they tore the barn down and did not save any of the lumber. Too expensive to do that.
After looking at both Mianne and Sievers my layout would cost over $500 for just the benchwork. I would rather put that into a DCC Engine/rolling stock/scenery/etc.
I want to use foam as my table top compared to using plywood and I have already purchased some woodland scenics risers so that is something I want to use.
I was just curious what others have done and it seems its a mix. I have enough carpentry skills to build the benchwork.
Like anything, it often comes down to money. If you have more money and less time, then you can afford to throw money at something to save time; who wouldn’t?
I did a rough calculation and it cost me about $300 from Home Depot for the actual benchwork (wood & drywall screws) to build the benchwork in my 10x18’ around the wall layout, which has two levels on one side; I bought materials as I went which spread that cost out over about 9. I would guess using the commercial benchwork mentioned above, it would be about $1800? I had to custom design my benchwork to fit the area, but it’s simple to dimension out etc.
I spent $150 on my benchwork for a 14 x 16 layout. Did not use the typical methods but I have a strong background in building so relied on that mostly, also I wanted some larger areas for some specific scenes:
