Hopefully you enjoyed the first post on the Train Coffee table. Chester enjoys the coffee table, even if you can’t see the finished product very well in this picture.

Shall we see how the table continues to progress?

By this time your mashed potatoes/cake icing should be nice and dry.

So where do we go next? To be honest I’ve never worked on a train layout at all, so I’m learning the process right along with you guys.

Once you have all of your track pretty much set you want to start adding the details. After all, what fun is it to watch a train go around a plain track? Nope, you have to build a little scene so that the engineer doesn’t get bored.

The details are what really sells a layout. The mashed potatoes/cake icing have been painted to look more like a built-up area of rock for the train to run over and a car to pass through. Figure out what buildings you want or what features you would like to add to your scene.

If you’re going to have buildings then you need to have paths on which to drive to get to them. You can make your roads in various ways so there is not one correct way in which to do this. It appears that Jay decided to use a thin hobby grade plywood for his roads.

Be sure to view it from different angles to see if you like how things look. Does it make sense? Are you going for realism? If so, can the cars really make that sharp corner to cross over the tracks? Since it’s all about the train do you really care about the vehicles that won’t move?

Here are our road/pavement pieces. They don’t look like much, do they?

With today’s technology it might help for you to take a picture of your layout (like one of the pictures above) so that you know exactly where each piece should go once you remove them to finish.

Jay decided to fiberglass these pieces. I’m not sure why. Theoretically he could have just painted them and left it at that. Perhaps he was going for a smoother finish so that you can’t exactly tell that they are wood pieces.

Again, there are a ton of ways to make roads, parking lots, and other types of pavement. Do a Google search. You’ll be amazed!

As we wait for the fiberglass to set up and dry we can make the frame for the table. Also, be sure to play with your train on the tracks to prove that your layout is good.