This looks inviting, but not practical. If you do it to save money on lumber, with the hardware and retro-fitting, it's cheaper to build
the old open grid with plywood sub and foam 1x3 sections and figure out another way of support. The late Bruce Petty's great SP
layout was a shelf, he had an article where he used shelf brackets with 1x2 extensions for the layout to sit in with a pocket in the
back.
Found it...
https://web.archive.org/web/20091022094109/http://geocities.com/oldlahistory/newshelf.htmlThis is a shelf layout modeling a heavy traffic main right-of-way with trackside industries located next to each other in a cityscape. The industries are built up as space saving flats of buildings with loading doors to receive and ship freight car loads of industrial products. The layout width on the average is 14 inches or nearly a 100 scale HO feet wide, this being the width of the prototype railroads right-of-way.
Starting about ten years ago I had built a five foot module of single track main line to sit on shelf brackets. At that time, about all I could do was run an engine back and fourth. This fired me up to build a second module with a small yard with industries. The layout was then 10 feet long with several turnouts, I was on a roll now feeling much better about layout building than the arm chair railroading that I had been doing.
After moving to a larger home and rebuilding an upstairs room that measured 9 x 23 feet for a layout and home office space, the shelf layout was setup along one side of the rooms longer length. On every wall stud a standard metal shelf bracket topped with a 1x3 inch board was placed to support the modules. The module units are screwed together but rest freely on the bracket boards to allow for expansion and contraction, after 5 years there are no track problems.
The third module would be focal point of the layout, Burbank Junction Tower has two sets of high speed crossovers using number 8 turnouts. The fourth module was built starting at 14 inches wide at the Burbank Tower module then expanded to 32 inches for the corner of the room. Here the double track main line disappears under auto bridge at this end of the room, only the westward leg of a wye is modeled, this being the eastern end of the Burbank Branch. This branch is planned to run to the other side of the room to North Hollywood. Both of these sections use a fascia boards that depicts one side of a concrete drainage channel. I considered each module finished when basic scenery such as painted track and ties, ballast, ground texture, and the fascia board, smaller details like switch stands, signals and pole lines are added later during detailing projects.
The height of the track from the floor is 60 inches, this works well for my eye level at 70 inches. This may be seem a little high but I prefer a horizontal view of my trains during an operating session. This also still allows plenty of space below the layout to be used for cabinets and book cases. The main line is level just as its prototype but the scenery ground level on some modules does drop below track level to look like fill. Several industry spurs drop down a scale foot below the main line past the turnout, although this is done for looks the spur track at the industries are level so cars do not roll when uncoupled.
Wood working is not on my fun list of things to do, a cabinet maker friend cuts plywood and lumber to size. I've never wanted to own an electric table saw or other wood working machinery. Wood-wise I have a small molding crosscut hand saw and a electric drill for pre-drilling screw holes that suits my needs.
The sections are built of one half inch plywood with a 1 x 2 inch frame. This provides plenty of strength to hold the track and structures. This is like building a book shelf without the heavy books, model trains are really light weight.
