Benchwork, the foundation of your entire model railroad. If your benchwork is strong then your railroad should be around a long time. There are many different types of benchwork ranging from a simple wooden sheet of plywood resting bettween two two-by-fours to a suspended platform that can be lowered from the roof of a room using a motor or a pulley system. However the most common type of benchwork includes modules and simple wooden tables. A simple table is usually big enough to hold most beginner layouts. If you are planning to build a simple trackplan such as a loop, then you will want to use simple benchwork like this. A module is a small table that can be eisily connected with other modules to form a complete layout. Most railroads clubs have specific specifications for the dimensions of a module. However, if you are only beginning it would be to your advantage to put your layout on a small wooden table onto which you can nail things, glue things, and make a mess. So many excellent model railroads have problems because the builder never planned for the future when building the benchwork. You should support the table with horizontal and diagonal braces and make surre the surface is thick and strong. Even as you build your benchwork though, you should remember that nobody is perfect and that you shouldn't take forever on it.