Construction Begins

 After literally years of planning, its is finally time to start construction. 

May 14, 2020 was the day the benchwork construction began. We had to think about where we wanted to start building our benchwork. After some discussion, we decided on Iron Horse Campground. It was to be located east of West Springfield Yard and would have been near impossible to access had we started to build out elsewhere.

 This section of benchwork is constructed of 2x4's. It was secured to the wall to provide some stability as the other sections of benchwork are built. This piece is 4x8' and 40" tall.

From here we worked "west" to West Springfield Yard. In total, three sections of benchwork would makeup West Springfield Yard. We started with a 3x8', followed by 5x4' and 4x4'.

A few days went by before we resumed construction. We picked up east of the Iron Horse Campground where "Canal" interlocking (CP107) would be.

Here we started adding 2x2" supports, approximately 18" long to support the backdrop.

The final sections of benchwork curved to the right and behind the furnace. Another section (not pictured) would be used for a small yard and programming track. Then west of West Springfield Yard, the benchwork for Ice House (CP100) was constructed.

Once we reached this point, we stopped building benchwork as the cost of lumber literally quadrupled overnight. We decided to continue once the prices drop.