@RDM posted:After building a supposedly portable layout of 1/2" Baltic birch and 1x3 bracing, I found that the 50" x 60" table was far too heavy to be portable as intended. I now use 1/4" plywood and 1x2 bracing (I glue all my bracing with carpenter's glue).
This is very good to know and makes me glad I asked! I would hate to find out the lack of portability only after I bought, cut, and assembled things!
@Mallard4468 posted:L-girder is not easily moved. However, it is easily disassembled, and the components can generally be reused to build a different configuration. I've done this several times. It sounds like this might be your first large layout - congratulations! However, understand and accept the fact that no matter how carefully you plan and how well you build, you WILL make mistakes or at least find things that you wish you had done differently. It's part of growing in the hobby.
@RDM provided some excellent perspective in his post above, and made a good point about access panels. His method of using 1/4" plywood with 1x2 bracing with glue yields a very strong and stable framework. That's actually a standard method in Britain where most layouts are portable (due to smaller homes) and many people haul them from one exhibition to another.
Thank you, it is indeed my first! (not counting the "Carpet Central" I had before moving!). I do understand that mistakes are inevitable and a natural part of the learning process, but I would like to mitigate or eliminate those as much as I can through planning ahead.
Going back to your first reply, Mallard, can you share some additional insight on the cookie-cutter method? I looked around for some info and I saw a reference to it in a HO video when they were discussing a grade. The sense I got was that they cut out the wood table where the grade started up until where the grade was complete, at which point a brand new piece of wood became the base for the upper level. Beyond that I did not get a clear idea of what cookie-cutter refers to.
If my guess about cookie cutting is actually correct, then I may do be open to some cookie cutting, but I don't want to do it for the whole layout. A driving motivation for having a two-level layout is storage track hiding under the upper level. The lower storage level will allow for very primitive railroad operations without taking things off the track. Is it still possible to keep an 8" space between levels with L-girder benchwork? I am going to commit to researching L-girder track and give serious thought to designing it either way, but I would like to know ahead of time if I am going to need to factor in a layout design change.
