The new layout building styles have replaced the overweight and out of place 2x4 legs, massive L girders, cross braces, risers and joists - geez - Are we building a house or a model railroad? New styles of construction have become the standard since extruded foam board replaced homasote, plywood or boxes of open grid 2 x 2’s with plywood on top. I really like what Bruce Petty of Dunsmuir did and detailed on his website. It’s a system of lightweight brackets that hold small boxes of 1 x 2’s with plywood tops. The boxes rest on a series of extended shelf brackets. This worked great in a 10x11’ room in a new mobile home in Fresno, CA when desgining my new N scale layout. It was lightweight and easy to construct.
Chuck, I’ve been reading your ‘brown bag’ pieces with interest. At the moment, this is the best for me, yet. I’ve worked as a carpenter and been acused of over building most things, but I really like this approach ---- John T.
I agree with a lot of this, but I disagree with a little. I’m not sure an L-girder made from a 1x3 and a 1x2 qualifies as massive. I’ve found that I can use pretty cheap lumber for these, as long as they are even a little straight they seem to pull the kinks out of each other by being at right angles. I put a shelf along the wall with two brackets built by the Linn Westcott method and two L-girders, the total being right around 8 feet long, and it could have been longer without any more brackets. I think this probably worked out cheaper than using the brackets you used. I will say that yours are more attractive, but I don’t think mine will be seen.
