More teardown. The layout itself is 100% down. Now working on patching all the walls from the rail-rax I had around the layout. Will sand and paint over the weekend and the old train room will be the new kids play room by next week.
So Jim, I have always shied away from attaching benchwork, backdrop or special layout lighting from the walls because of the fear I would have to tear down and patch quickly to sell or that I would be disabled or pass away and my wife would be stuck with a monster. Would you please tell us how extensively you intruded on the walls, and what precautions you would suggest when attaching layout to the walls. One suggestion I read several years ago was to put something like carpeting between the wall and the support, then about all you would have to do is put some spackling in the small holes, sand and paint, and it would look like new.
No benchwork was attached to the wall on the main part of the layout. The part where the ferry was used shelf brackets to attached to the walls. The biggest part was the railrax shelfing I had all over the walls to display my trains that were not on the layout. Lots of holes to fill there.
Lessons learned, the new layout will not have rail rax on the walls, but attached to the benchwork legs along the edge of the layout. The new layout will be about chest high with shelfs along the front to store cars that aren't currently on the layout itself. The walls will have backdrops up to 46 inches above the layout leaving only a little bit of wall showing. This is where I will display my photos of trains.
Ah ha! Yes, my daughter already has a lot of the shelf brackets attached to the walls. I intend to make use of them. I like your plan for the layout height and railrax shelving attached to the front legs. Other guys on this forum have done something similar. I would have never thought to do it, but theirs look good. We are as anxious as you to see the new layout start to take shape, but I realize it will be a while. Thanks!
