Carpentry not being a strong point for me, I was on the lookout for an easy fix to provide the basis for my layout, and found it in a large Swedish furniture store that offers a range of solid-looking and reasonably inexpensive wooden tabletops and legs. I don’t pretend that this is an optimal solution, but it provides a smooth, level surface and demands a lot less skill than the traditional open framework construction. 

The available space being long and narrow, I bought two 2m x 0.6m tabletops for the main part of the layout, and two 1m x 1m corner units to support the wider 180 degree loops at each end of a “dog-bone” style layout. It would be possible to fit a curve into 0.6m by using the smallest N gauge radii, but I wanted to avoid this if possible. A width of 1m allows you to use Fleischmann R3 and R4. The tabletops are supported on adjustable legs. I chose these simply because they are longer than the standard legs and allow you to mount the tables at a convenient working height. Since my floor is fairly level, the adjustability is more of nuisance than a help.

The tables are secured to each other by hinges with removable pins. Track and electrics are also arranged so that the tables could be separated if required, although this would only be likely to happen if I move house or decide to extend the layout (or get bored with it and put it into store).