"Shelf Benchwork
I have a small storage room. I admit it. It’s not big enough to be called a bedroom but it’s bigger than a wardrobe. For the last year ‘the s**t room’ as it’s been called by the family has been full of moving boxes still waiting to be emptied. Not long ago I had a good clean up and managed to get all the boxes to one wall and all at a uniform height. Just so happened I was reading a magazine at the same time from the states called ‘Model Railroad Planning’. In the magazine was an article on shelf layouts and how they were perfect for small spaces. That got the brain ticking. Why not build a shelf layout above the boxes.
The article described the shelf modules and their construction. They are fantastic and require a woodworking shop (the ones we remember from high school) and half the timber yard at the Dunedin Mega 10.
I drew up a few designs for a basic shelf layout. Nothing fancy and not that original. All the timber products, shelf brackets and screws can easily be found at a Mega 10 or Bunning’s.
There are no set dimensions so you can make the shelves as wide and long as you like (within reason). By building them as small shelves you can add a few together to make a decent area and pull them apart to fit through doorways when moving.
I use soft board on top of the MDF for two reasons. One, it’s very easy to push track pins in if that’s the way you secure your track and two, it reduces running noise. The fascia is also fairly deep to conceal any wiring and point motors.
Originally the shelf was going to be for a small 1:64 shunting layout, but there is no reason why this wouldn’t work for NZ 120."
No comments:
Post a Comment