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Peter's Model Railroading | Articles | Layouts | Layout #7
Construction

The first thing I needed to do was to build a set of ladder frames to act as the toe-kicks for the cabinets. I purposely didn't integrate them into the cabinets when I built those in 2003, so that different configurations would be possible. The toe-kicks were made out of 3/4" furniture-grade plywood.

Since the bottom of the toe-kick ladder frame will be visible when entering the room, I decided to paint them my favorite dark green. Two coats did the trick. I only painted the visible edges. I clamped them together and verified that they were at 90-degrees to each other and at the correct location within the room. I then drilled two holes between each of them and bolted them together.

This photo shows the ten cabinets in place and bolted together. From this angle you see the room from the room's entrance. The toe-kick ladder frame worked really well. It was relatively easy to connect all the cabinets together. For most I had to drill new holes between them because they weren't lined up with the same ones I had done during the construction of the P&C RR #4. The new layout will be built on top of these cabinets. All-in-all, the clean look of the cabinets makes the room look very nice and comfortable. I hope to maintain these clean lines in the layout on top. This is, after all, my office, so I need to keep it as relaxing of a work space as possible.

The base of the module is effectively a tray. After cutting each of the sheets of plywood I cut the side pieces, which are 1.5 inches tall, I made the module bases 1/8" less deep than the cabinets, because a 1/8"-thick front fascia sheet will be installed later, and I want those to be flush with the fronts of the cabinets.