My neighbor works for a kitchen remodeling company. Noting that I had just finished with my garage remodeling he asked me if I wanted some cabinets. Naturally, I said let me see them. He took me to two houses that have had the cabinets removed for replacements.
I acquired 6 24 inch wide upper cabinets and 4 48 inch wide base cabinets. The uppers will be hung on the wall over the 6 foot standing wall cabinets that I already have.
The base cabinets are 18, 36 and 48 inches in width. Some have drawers and others have doors with shelves. I plan to install a row of these 18 feet long along the the front edge of the 14 x 19 foot garage layout set back aboput 6 inches for toe space. The back will be on shelf supports on the wall.
I will install an L-Girder grid on top of them and go from there. There is plenty of storage for tools and rolling stock and I have a great “leg” up to getting my layout started.
I got all of this for a hundred bucks, deleivered, because they just take them to the junk yard.
Now, if you keep all your electrical runs along the aisleway your wiring should require nothing more complex than grabbing drops (pushed down from above) with a straightened wire clothes hanger. You get to make all your connections while seated in a chair in the space in front of the layout!
Installing switch machines might get tricky - much less so if your turnouts are on easily-removed inserts. Of course, with a little creative design you can keep the switch machines either on top of the roadbed (no, not those awful Atlas things that foul siderods. I was thinking of simple linkages to machines hidden in lineside buildings or under removeable chunks of landscape,) or move them out to the edge of the layout below the subgrade (with a long, but simple, link to the points.)
The best part is that you have socially acceptable storage as part of the deal. Sure beats hanging an opaque shower curtain in front of stacked-up (and almost inaccessible) junk.
This was my plan for our basement, before health mobility/access issues made the basement inaccessible to me. When we remodeled the kitchen, I had the workers take the 20-some 50s vintage metal cabinets to the basement for use as layout support. My plan was to use the cabinets without a counter top, and make 8" high by 24" long wood I beam like spacers to stand on the the cabinet top flanges inteded to fasten the counter top…these would double as cabinet connecters. The 8" space would have been sufficient for most wiring needs, and with the drawers removed, there would have been no practical access limitation. I was planning on “bents” made of steel studs for areas not supported by cabinets.
I haven’t started on the layout using CadRail yet, so I am not going to erect the benchwork until that is finalized. It will be about 15 x 19 feet allowing a four foot aisle way for passage from the garage door into the house. I have a 5 foot deep by 18 feet wide raised area at the end of the garage for my work bench.
The NH Union Station will be in the center with tracks from either end eventially ending in multi track hidden staging. The lowest staging (representing New York) will be on the L-girder and the switches will be over an open area between base cabinets so there is no problem with that. The second level staging (representing Boston) will be also have the switches over an open area as well. That level will be supported on risers, affording even more room if need be.
The central area with the station trackage will also be on risers. There will be about 6 inches between levels, so 36, 42 and 48 inches will be the track levels with maximum 2 percent grades on nolixes to the staging.
The reason for this post was to make any of you in the planning stages aware that remodelers, re-habbers and handy men are a good source not just for Base cabinets but others as well. I also obtained 5 linear feet of wall hung cabinets which will go over the work bench and another 8 1/2 feet that will be wall hung over the 6 foot high floor cabinets along the opposite wall giving me plenty of storage space.
We just finished remodeling two bathrooms. Here are the dimensions of the (2) bathroom base cabinets that were kept for just this kind of storage purpose: