The Bench work for my train layout started out as two 4X8 foot tables bolted together with carriage bolts. I used the instructions for building the two table from Lionel trains website. I put wheels at the bottom of each of the legs, so that I was able to role the tables out. This gave me a chance to get behind the table and pull it away from the wall.

The reason for the two tables with my initial approach, was to provide a table for my son Sal and his trains and on table for me. My sons table had a figure 8 layout on the table. My Layout had a large outer loop with two switches with a smaller inner loop. I connected the two tables together to form a L with the bench work. I then added my elevated tressel layout that looped over the two layouts.

Needless to say, the wheel worked for a while, but as the table got heavier, the wheels would break the legs. It was at this point that I made the decision not to use the wheels anymore. I left them on the tables, but bolted the tables to the bench work that I ran along the wall.

1940-1969 vehicles

An effort is made by me to have vehicles from the periods of 1940-1969. In part, these are the cars that I love the most. Most of the vehicles on my layout come from the 1940's to 1960's. This includes Ford trucks and the Ford Deuce Coupe. One reason why I favored the Ford Deuce Coupe for this layout was for two reason. One, is that this vehicle became a favorite among hot rodders of this time period. There were many times, when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's that I have seen this car on the cover of the Hot Rod magazine. Second of course, is the mention of the vehicle in Bruce Springsteen's song "Blinded by the light".

It was great that I found the Taxi cab on my layout. I was looking for a long time for a taxi cab that was in the same time period of my Uncle Sal's Taxi Company. This was a center point of my town on the main layout. I want to "simulate" my Uncle Sal's Taxi stand that he had at the time. This Taxi stand was located under the train tracks in Floral Park New York. The name of the taxi company was Re's Taxi and my Uncle Connie grew up working for my Uncle Sal and told be a ton of stories of working with his dad in that Taxi stand.

It was an internal struggle, to add the 1968 Camaro and the 1969 Firebird to my layout. My intention was to keep the time period to the 1940'2 and 1950's. However, these are one of my favorite cars of the 1960's and could not resist in adding them to the layout. In addition, it helped bridge a couple of "out of time period" items, such as the EE subway (ran in NY in the 1960's) and my 1970's era McDonalds. Both are great pieces that I had to have on my layout and will explain more in another section on this site.