French Cleat Benchwork

A few weeks go I made mention of an idea I had to use a french cleat for simple benchwork.

Picture from Wiki Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:French_cleat.jpg

Why?

One of the nice things about using the shelf track system that my modern shelf layout did is that it was easy to take the layout on and off the wall.  In Shelf Layouts for Model Railroads, Iain Rice uses the shelf bracket system, then covers over the wall brackets with a layer of masonite.  That's more work and more materials and I wanted to avoid that.

In How to Build a Switching Layout, Lance Mindheim solves this problem by only mounting the brackets up to the point of the layout, then letting the layout sit on top of them.  If one isn't going to build a valance or any kind of overhead lighting, that is probably a preferable solution.

However, I wanted to at least investigate if there were other options.  From some of the wood working I've done, I knew about the french cleat.  Here's how I designed it's use into shelf layout benchwork.