I wish I'd bought this book long ago

books:

	• How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork, Second Edition (Model Railroader) Linn Hanson Westcott, Rick Selby Kalmbach Publishing Company, 1996 - 80 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Book

A must for any serious model railroader who wants to learn skills from those who have "been there" and "done that".

I wish I'd bought this book long ago

An excellent book, if not the best, on support structures for permanent model railroad layouts.

Although this book doesn't feature all varieties of model railroad bases, and concentrates on permanent bases, the two that it focuses on, butt-end and l-girder, are the most common and most versatile, and can easily be used for portable layouts as well.

Both styles are handled extremely well and the text thoroughly covers not only construction techniques and choice of materials but also points out things to consider and pitfalls to watch out for that will often catch out even experienced model railroaders in various situations. There are loads of handy tips and step-by-step guides for specific details and the diagrams are nice and clear.

I have built so many layout benches (more than 20, some portable but most permanent), and always used butt-end frames for them and always encountered some issues that forced me to make compromises in my permanent layouts, and even my latest one has already thrown enough problems at me to make me take it down because in this case an l-girder structure is far more suitable. Thanks to the author, I now know when to use l-girder and when to use butt-end and also how to build much better butt-end frames than I ever have done before.

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the train table bible.

I built 4 L-Girder tables using solely this book. Never done wood work before. If i can do it using this book, then anybody can. I think i would have given the book a full 5 stars if the examples had of been a little clearer. I think there is room for improvement in the layout of the book. It's layout is a little outdated. All in all though - a must have for building model railroad tables.

Back to basics

Great book to build layouts of all sorts. If just starting to build a layout, start with the 1st edition or something similar first. This book is an advanced version. Still, the plans or ideas will definitly give you insight for any upcoming or future product.

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The Best Foundational Book

For building benchwork, this is the best book out there. Benchwork is not fun or glamorous but it is the foundation of all that will follow. It does not pay to skimp on it. This book shows how to build it effectively and cheaply.

Several different approaches are examined. These include primarily the L-girder style and the butt joint style but others are touched upon as well. What this book has that similar ones lack is in depth information on sub roadbeds, splines and helices.

It's the best out there.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Demonstrates how to plan and build the basic framework to support layouts of any size, shape or gauge.

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