Having retired with a life long interest in model railroading I am ready to begin my empire. The room is finished and I’m ready to bulid my workbench. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Workbench or benchwork?
Track plans?
Do you have plenty of MRR books on planning, electrical, benchwork, scenery?
Sounds like you’re ready for some MRR fun!
If you are looking for a workbench there are probably as many answers and opinions as there are modelers. For my use I found that going to a home improvement store and buying a kitchen counter top is the answer. You can get them in varying lengths. Buy a few unpainted kitchen floor cabinets with drawers, paint them a nuteral color, put the counter top on and your ready to go. The drawers will give you a decent storage location and the splash guard in the back will keep things from going down behind the workbench. The height is just about right for a stool or a tall office chair. You might even find a second or slightly damaged counter top at a greatly reduced price.
Ed S.
I went to a second hand furniture barn and bought an old office cubicle desk for a hundred bucks, made out of white particle board. I put a roof on it, hung a fluoro tube, screwed a power board under the bench, installed a magnifier/lamp on an arm, put peg-board on one side wall, put shelves and hooks and those little plastic arrays of drawers everywhere. I’m pondering building a spray booth into one corner of it…
I went back to the same place and bought several of those units that roll under an office desk on castors, for about fifty bucks each. One of them has a pen drawer that now holds all my Xacto knives etc, another drawer for tools and a deep filing drawer now full of rolls of wire. Another has lots of little shelves that used to hold stationery but now hold sheets and strips of styrene, balsa etc. A third has a big cupboard in it that now holds my reference library in ring binders, and has my throttle cabs installed on top of it on a flexible cable!! These now live under the railroad benchwork, and I draw them close to me when I am working at the workbench.
And I got an old adjustable office chair on castors for seventy more dollars.
I reckon the whole rig cost me about 500 bucks and a couple of hours of my time. I understand second hand furniture is even cheaper in the US than it is here in NZ…
My workbenches are a pair of industrial-gray metal worktables I picked up at an auction for $2 each–they’re 60"x30" and 30" high. I have them moved beneath my shelf layout, which is situated 48" high, so there’s just enough room for a row of 18" high tool chests to hold assorted parts, tools and miscellaneous widgets. If you’re planning on using a modular, sectional or domino type construction method, make sure there is enough room on your workbench to set the biggest module you will be working on–my latest module is 1’x6’ and being able to work on it at the workbench instead of at its operating high of 48" was a real advantage!