I am building a drop down section of track using plywood on hinges across a doorway.
I am wondering how those of you whpo have done it line up track reliably at each end. DO you slide a joiner in place each time you put it in position? Use as removable 3-6" piece like I've seen the modilar guys do at train shows? COnstruct it in some stable enough way that jooners are not needed?
Any advice on building this thing will be appreciated.
73
Bruce in the Peg
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Thanks for the innerduckshen, Bob. Bruce has pretty much covered it, it turns out, but I will supply more details if it will help.
You can use one long hinge, sort of like a piano lid hinge and cut off what you don't need. Or, use two inexpensive hardware store brass hinges, perhaps 2" long, and try to get their pins very closely aligned as you screw them into the wood on one end of the swing down bridge. If you don't align them, they'll fight each other and want to distort the frame of the bridge something awful. Over time, that will have an eroding effect on the alignment at the other end...where you don't want joiners if you can avoid them.
Then, the end that swings up and down is held in place by two inexpensive brass barrel locks. If properly installed, and not a biggy for most of us, they will hold the rail ends nicely in alignment, and if you use them to wire the bridge rails, you can wrap bared 22 gauge wire ends around their mounting screws to get contact. The power would go through the flange and bolt, and then transmit to another bared wire wrapped around a screw embedded in the other half of the barrel lock.
There can be a gap at the swing up end, but you'll have to design that bridge end so that it can clear the bench at that end as it comes up into position. So, you'll have to get angles like this. Bench face has this profile> //< is the profile of the bridge when in position. As you can visualize, the bridge on the right swings down nicely clear from the lower end of the bench face with this configuration.
Tip: a good sturdy wood frame with diagonal bracing of some kind to make it stiff, and use that to mount all brackets for hinges and barrel locks.
Tip: make the bridge first as a frame and then mount it as a frame. All the approach tracks and the trackage on the bridge come later...just like in real life. Bridge first, then base for scenery and roadbed, tracks with all the gaps and wiring in place, prove it all with powered engines and rolling stock, and then complete the scenery in those areas.
Tip: clear pine is fine. 3/4" X 2" will do nicely, and when you go to begin track laying, top the frame with extruded foam to keep it all durable and light. You can carve the foam roughly and sand it prior to laying the tracks on it. Once the tracks are all good to go, then cover the foam with ground foam and stuff, including detailing. I laid the ties directly on the foam and used caulking to hold it in place.
Tip: Use Gorilla Glue to bond the foam to the frame. Latex caulking didn't do a great job for me in just this particular application...don't know why, so I turned to gorilla glue at the edges of the foam where it sits on the edges of the wood, and that did the trick. Go light on the Gorilla Glue. Let one gorilla do the work, not tons of gorillas.
Does that help you out?
Jack,
Lots of good advise given in the previous posts.
In addition to what everyone else has mentioned, I have found that over time the track on the end that swings up tends to get bumped and dinged quite often which causes the molded spikes in the track to let loose and the rails either start moving out of gauge or come off the ties entirely.
To solve this, I replace the last couple ties on both ends with a small piece of printed circuit board and solder the rail to the PC board. Make sure you cut a gap in the top of the PC board before you turn the power on or you will get a nasty short. This method has kept the rails in place for over 5 years on both of my bridges.
Scott
One other item, mentioned in passing, that needs more emphasis.
If the non-moving benchwork at both ends isn't anchored solidly to the walls and/or floor, it would be a very good idea to connect the end legs under the 'abutments' to a sill that will provide a solid connection between them. A simple piece of plywood, beveled on both traffic sides, will do it. Without that safety margin, a hip-bump against a freestanding table could be the prelude to disaster.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Chuck,
That tip on non-moving benchwork is exactly what I did to frame up my swing gate on both sides of the aisle. Here is a photo of the hinge side framing:
The 2X4 frame member is attached to a 2X2 which is anchored to the floor with 3 1/2" deck screws.
Part I of the Swing Gate Tutorial link.
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
Thanks all for the help... I've got some work to do.
So I'm correct? No one uses joiners on either side? Did I get that right?
That's right. The idea is to make the mechanical process so good, and the frame so strong, that they do all the aligning you'll need. You just lift the device into position, and engage the barrel locks. Note that the bolts will probably have sunk under gravity towards their engage position, so when you get close to sweeping past the face of the bench where the barrels are located, pause and retract the bolts so that you don't bang them on the lower lip of the bench. No matter, you'll get the drill soon enough. (Or, mount the barrels on the lift gate, itself...I coulnd't due to the relative sizes of the brackets and the boards).
jxtrrx wrote: Thanks all for the help... I've got some work to do.So I'm correct? No one uses joiners on either side? Did I get that right?
On my removable yard throats (not gates, but the same principle applies,) I use rail joiners - soldered to the rails that come up from below, with the non-soldered ends spread open to accept the bases of the rails that descend from above. Probably belt-and-suspenders thinking on my part, since the sub-frames are held in alignment with bolts through snug holes in steel (I use steel stud material for my benchwork.)
tomikawaTT wrote: On my removable yard throats (not gates, but the same principle applies,) I use rail joiners - soldered to the rails that come up from below, with the non-soldered ends spread open to accept the bases of the rails that descend from above. Probably belt-and-suspenders thinking on my part, since the sub-frames are held in alignment with bolts through snug holes in steel (I use steel stud material for my benchwork.)Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I guess I'm a "belt and suspenders" thinker too. I can't get away from thinking that there needs to be some kind of alignment at the point of the track break. Maybe because I'm not that confident in my ability to build something so totally immovable and perfect. I like your tip.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
selector wrote: That's right. The idea is to make the mechanical process so good, and the frame so strong, that they do all the aligning you'll need. You just lift the device into position, and engage the barrel locks. Note that the bolts will probably have sunk under gravity towards their engage position, so when you get close to sweeping past the face of the bench where the barrels are located, pause and retract the bolts so that you don't bang them on the lower lip of the bench. No matter, you'll get the drill soon enough. (Or, mount the barrels on the lift gate, itself...I coulnd't due to the relative sizes of the brackets and the boards).
Another hint to have a firm fittting barrel bolt and to eliminate any slop is when to start with a smaller hole, about the size of the barrel. Tappering for initial alignment yet allow the hole to pull the barrel tight to any direction needed for best alignment. Enlarging the hole slightly and setting up any tapering as needed. I do this with the slide bolts for stationary doors of a french/ double door set up. Barrel can easily start yet will become tight stopping movement. Also can compensate for any wear, movement or sag. To just use the receiver suppied with the barrel bolt allows considerable slop. Having to use this receiver the only sure fire way to craete a tight fit is then to file or grind a taper on the barrel itself.
You can also use tapered alignment pins along with the latch. This would assure a positive fit of the gate or swing away, regardless of any benchwork shifting.
Went to a RR show this weekend, there was a portable layout with a simple lift gate. It did have the hinge pins up, so a building or something easily removeable would have to be put over them. When the gate came down a screw simply pushed on a "push on" switch. About 18" each side of the gate were controlled. To be sure of alignment they only used blocks each side of the drop down, could use alignment pins or several other methods. They did have rerailers each side of the gap on the non hinge end to insure any misalignment would be corrected. I was impressed that a traveling layout which gets a lot of punishment was so solid and simple. Didn't see any way to lock it down, but one could easily put a dead bolt in. The gap in the track was only about a saw width at each end, no joiners or removeable track. The control section was to the drop down and two sides, so that the power was continous as the train crossed the small gap.
Good luck,
Cowman,
Thanks for the description - a good reminder not to over-engineer this kind of project.
Thinking historically, extending the dead control section to a full train length from the abyss might be a good idea. The last major accident caused by the non-existence of the (in)famous Bentless Trestle on John Armstrong's Canandaigua Southern layout was a train that backed marker-end first into the valley. (A couple of weeks later, the bridge deck was in and the problem no longer existed. Decades later, the supporting towers got built and installed.)