Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
fredswain wrote:There is a gentleman here in Houston who has a large HO layout. It has expanded into a small second room of the house. It has a duck under but not a conventional one. It moves up. It is on a track system on each side of the door and has a linear actuator that can move it up out of the way. When it comes down, it has aligning pins that ensure that the track is perfect. Very innovative. He's not the most nimble person anymore in his age so a different solution was needed. It's pretty neat but did require some custom work to do. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it.
Well one could presumably do what the LIRR did when they were confronted with an ever increasing number of automobiles not waiting for trains to clear the crossings that exist on the southern part of Nassau and Suffolk Counties here in NYS. The dug underpasses for the automobiles and eliminated the crossings altogether.
So one could dig a pit with a staircase going down one side of the former duckunder and another staircase going up on the other.
Irv
You may be approaching the problem in the wrong way. Are you trying to make a section of the layout act as a lift, drop, or swing access? If you are, that may be your problem. You might have to loose the "layout" part under the tracks where the access is to be, and build just the access bridges.
In other words, if you have a section of the layout that crosses in front of a door and has three or four tracks on it at different levels, or even the same level, make a drop, or lift bridge for each track, separate from the other. Make them look like bridges, models in themselves, although they would be longer and not supported as the prototype. Your access into the center of the layout just became the giant chasm that the Railroad had to build several special bridges to cross.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
If the vertical lift idea doesn't appeal, you could go part of the Joe Fugate mushroom route.
Leave the doorway as-is (presuming the door swings outward or has been removed.) Once inside the room, climb the steps to the level of the false floor, then turn around and drop the trap door to close the canyon. Your head will be a lot closer to the ceiling, but the layout will be at a not-unreasonable height. And the duckunder will be, at worst, a nod-under.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have a hinged drop section that supports three tracks on two levels. It provides great ingress and egress UNLESS something goes wrong on the outside when I'm in, or the inside when I'm out. When stuff happens, I have to unhook the whole *%@? thing to get in or get out. When I designed this layout I was 36. I could "scoot" under that drop section with no effort. I can't do that anymore. Lately, I've tried to fool myself into thinking that the "duck under" might give me a reason to get into better shape, and therefore I would do so...............well.............guess how well that has worked! I've tried a very short rolling stool to scoot myself under the expanse with limited success. I have to report that 75% of the time, I either hit my head or scrape my back on the under-side of the drop section when I try this.
My recommendation, after dealing with such an arrangement for nearly 20 years, is DON'T DO IT!! In my case, it has limited enjoyment of running, maintaining, and scenicing the layout simply because of the "hassle factor" associated with raising or dropping the section - or the consequential visits to the chiropractor.
Re-design your track plan, or build your prevailing bench level at, say, 72 inches above the floor.
chicochip
chicochip wrote: I have a hinged drop section that supports three tracks on two levels. It provides great ingress and egress UNLESS something goes wrong on the outside when I'm in, or the inside when I'm out. When stuff happens, I have to unhook the whole *%@? thing to get in or get out. When I designed this layout I was 36. I could "scoot" under that drop section with no effort. I can't do that anymore. Lately, I've tried to fool myself into thinking that the "duck under" might give me a reason to get into better shape, and therefore I would do so...............well.............guess how well that has worked! I've tried a very short rolling stool to scoot myself under the expanse with limited success. I have to report that 75% of the time, I either hit my head or scrape my back on the under-side of the drop section when I try this.
Another often unmentioned consequence is the magnitude 9 (on the model Richter scale) earthquakes that accompany the headache or scraped back. Your little people and trains, hardy as they are, still often get toppled. The ultimate disaster is trying to get under quickly to save a train from a 4ft impact test with the floor, and hitting the access point with shoulder, head, or back and generating an earthquake that launches a second train in its 4ft impact test. 3 times the pain (self and 2 trains). Don't ask how I learned this....
My recommendation, after dealing with such an arrangement for nearly 20 years, is DON'T DO IT!! In my case, it has limited enjoyment of running, maintaining, and scenicing the layout simply because of the "hassle factor" associated with raising or dropping the section - or the consequential visits to the chiropractor.Re-design your track plan, or build your prevailing bench level at, say, 72 inches above the floor.
But the temptation is so strong - I can get so much more layout for the price of one simple gate/liftout/duckunder! And I am so weak....resistance is futile....
Just keep in mind that when you need to get across quickly, any liftout or gate becomes a duckunder by default. The higher and narrower the better.
Another point - narrow aisles also have a tendency to lead to body strikes and model earthquakes. Especially when you are in a hurry.
Is the extra layout worth the pain - a pain that only gets worse as the years increase? Only you can answer that for you. There are plenty of model railroaders whom I respect who vehemently disagree on this subject. To quote another forum member, model railroading is often an intensely personal hobby.
Fred W
My lower level benchwork is too low for a duckunder and the doorway space too narrow for some type of hinged crossing, so I did a variation of a liftout section. I put legs and castors on it. It just slides right in and lines itself up. And it can still be used as an emergency crawlunder (yuk).
I use an old set of video plugs to make the 8 conductor connection. I intend to put in a micro switch to shut off the approach tracks and some other finishing touches. It's been working great for 10 years or so.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Good morning, Harvey Wallbanger, Another friend here in Port townsend where we hold our regular Wed. evening sessions has a great solution. He has the door reversed to open out into the laundry room. Using formed steel or aluminum channel on the order of 1/2x1" for stiffness under the bridges, he has built plastic bridge sets on his parallel but separate tracks across the doorway. They are even at a different height. They are both hinged on the same side and swing up. He has also cleverly installed tiny microswitches so that if the bridge is up the track is dead for 12" on each approach to the bridge. At the open end he notched out the seat for the channel to fit snugly and has no problems with rail alignment. I will show you when you come down.
Be sure you clean up all the drywall and mud dust and prime the new drywall, eh? Otherwise your layout will always have a light coat of the dust. John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
To be honest, I don't use anything, it lines up perfect everytime. I built the whole thing including a 6" approach on either side of the bridge out of a 1/2 a sheet of marine 3/4" plywood. I had to make some minor adjustments to the gaps after the first summer/winter cycle but nothing since then. I did make some wedges to hold it in place, but we never use them.
Once built, I laid the track through (glued down with Liquid nails) and secured the last 3 or 4 ties with nails and then cut the gaps. I filed the ends of the rails to a taper to avoid the wheels snagging the ends of the rails. We regularly pull 70 to 80 weighted car trains across both levels.
The really nice thing is that there's nothing to lift out and find a place to store it, I just pull it out and sove it down the isle out of the way.
After diligently searching for duck unders and swing gates and lift outs, I found a lot of plans that were innovative, creative and looked really neat. SO, I tried to build one. What a disaster, it was on a curve and I wanted it to swing out. The geometry involved is not trivial, but hey, other guys did it so can I.
I'll admit that I have failed miserably at two things building my railroad. 1st was the swinging gate , the second was hand laying track turnouts. I'm bonafide proof that disproves the old saying that anyone can do it. I couldn't, I spent a lot of money and even more time trying.
Visiting a lot of different home railroads in my area, I see fellows with swing ups, drop ins and roll unders, but have yet to see a swing out.
Joe Daddy
With a 9'x12' room for HO, 1/35 scale armor and under-the layout storage the dilema of a second return loop of approx 40" radii became painfully real. I then found a solution in left over lumber. By incorporating a turn-table section that I used in the past I expanded the return loop section into a complete reverse-wired loop, independent of the remaining main line. The feeder tracks are separate as well and wired as such.
All wiring is to an "Atlas" Reversing circuit switch and the whole module is hinged to one wall of the room inside the door opening. I simply unhook the wiring, and swing the Draw Bridge as I call it up to the ceiling and hook into the loop screwed into the re-enforced part of a ceiling support. I have ample headroom to walk out of the doorway and both ends of the module are supported by heavy duty shelving brackets screwed into the wall and the end of the layout table.
The entire module is framed using 1"x4" lumber to form a 40"x42" outer frame, the turntable section is lined up to match the center track off the main layout at the yard end. I have used 2" white insulating foam to fill in the gaps and support the weight of the trains, the foam was glued to the inside of the frame using Elmers woodworking glue which adhears to the foam with great strength.
I hope to have shed some light on the subject.
johncpo
You have probably seen this before, but here is another solution.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Sorry about that. The return loop and turntable are on the same module and the same level, the circuit for the return loop is separate from the two main feed lines and the main that goes into the turntable. The entire module swings up to be hooked to the ceiling. To facilitate track connections I layed out all of the tracks that lead onto the swing-up module. I then used a "Dremel" tool with a cut off wheel to make diagnal cuts across each track.
The turn table section of the module is centered allowing for a connecting main line track as a lead track onto the turn table. It was a bit confusing to me at first to wire the return loop but by using the Atlas "Reversing Control" I wired it according to directions and it works fine.
Best of luck
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Capt.
Just thought I would throw this in. Until last week I have been shooting with film in 35mm slide and prints with my Nikons and with 40 years of outdoor and some indoor photography I was limited to the ways of film. I now have a very nice Nikon D40 that my wife and I chose above all others as the lenses fit from the film cameras. So now I have a way to contribute my photos of my HO layouts and my 1/35 scale WWII armor and 1/48 aircraft to FSM as well.
As you might guess my hobbies are varied and complete with great detail sharing techniques as crossing from 1/35 to 1/87 scale is just a matter of using different glasses to see through, as bi-focals have given away to tri-focals and the cameras have changed as well.
Thanks for the reply however as I will be looking at either Photobucket or an alternative to posting on both sites.
The best hobbies are the ones you enjoy