Being in a wheelchair, my HO 4X8 is on wheels so I can reach all sides. But, it is not stable enough for good track alignment. It seems that every time I move it, another derailing occurs. I do not have enough room to leave it out from the wall. And I like continuous running.
Here is my question. What is the most rigid type of construction for my new 5X9 layout? It has to a lift out section on the 9' side to permit my reaching all the rails. I guess you could describe the layout as "C" shaped.
How about a stressed panel design similar to the way a wooden door is put together? That would have plywood glued to the upper and lower edges of 1X4's. Could have problems with wiring however.
73
Bruce in the Peg
Howdy, Bruce.
The most rigid structure is based on triangles. Unless the angle fastenings fail, you can't rack a triangle.
My 5 x 12 'big blob' (part of my double garage filler) was about as stable as Jell-O. A single diagonal brace, crossing between the L girders and attached to all the joists, stiffened it to the point that deflection in a horizontal plane simply doesn't happen. The brace is a length of the smallest, lightest steel stud material, fastened with steel stud screws driven up from below.
With your more complex design, you will probably need several diagonal braces. In addition, your legs will need to be solidly braced. The nice thing is that the small-section brace won't get in the way of wiring, or much of anything else. Worst-case scenario, you might have to get creative with one or a few switch machine mountings.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on steel stud benchwork)
This is the benchwork for my own 5x12 layout.
As you can see (click on the picture to see it better) it's on wheels, too. My layout room is under a 45-degree roof, so I too needed to pull it out from the wall to work on the back, and leaving it in the center of the room just wasn't going to work with the rest of the family.
The construction is 1x4 on the outer frame, 1x3 rafters to support the layout base, 2x3 legs and 1x2 diagonal cross-members between the center legs. The thing that makes it all work is the triangular gussets (3/4-inch plywood) which support the legs. These keep the legs where they're supposed to be. You can't see it in this photo, but there's also a diagonal 1x4 below the rafters to keep the frame square.
This turned out to be very light. I use a foam layout base, and even with a lot of trains on board I can still easily push it around a carpeted room. The trains stay on the track, and even my Preiser moose figures, which are simply set in place, not glued, remain standing.
But, like Chuck said, the key is the triangular bracing.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
How about this... in the Linn Westcott version of "Model railroad Benchwork"
How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork, Second Edition (Model Railroader) Linn Hanson Westcott,
There is, towards the back of the book, a table 5' x 9' that pivots on a single center brace. It was designed to tilt up for storage and the tilt down to run trains. For you this might be good since it would give you more space, tilt up to work on (expect for trains) on one side for scenery and you could go the other way to work the other half. This would also allow access to the "underside" of the table as well for working on the wiring and all of the other stuff underneath.
Sorry I don't have access to a copy but it's towards the back with a couple of pictures and a set of "plans" for a 5' x 9'. Not sure if this is what you are looking for but it's worth a look
EDIT - You can see the table of contents in the link and on page 67 there is a section of tilt ups and lift outs and page 74 is the tilt table
ratled
Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
What you are describing is torsion box construction. Very strong, very lightweight, (and in the case of aircraft interiors, very expensive). I am a recovering woodworker, but beginning RR man (too many hobbies). I would'nt think dimension lumber 1x3, 1x4, 2x4 is your answer (too heavy)
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Fine_Points_of_Torsion_Boxes.html
Hope I have not confused you
You probably can't keep a wooden 5x9 structure from flexing, especially if you roll it across an uneven floor. The trick is to keep it from flexing enough to mess up your trackwork.
If you use three quarter inch plywood decking with reasonable support, it shouldn't flex enough to damage your track, except at the plywood joints. It's a simple matter then to bridge joints in the benchwork with the plywood, making sure the plywood joints take place over rigid sections of benchwork.
This way your track is subjected to a broad smooth curve of flexing plywood, instead of a "corner" where two pieces of plywood butt together.
The walkway beside our 5x14 roll-away layout changes from carpet and pad to bare linoleum at one end, half an inch of heigth difference, plus a bump as the layout rolls over the edging strip, and we don't have any derailment problems, whether the layout is in its normal place, or rolled out onto the uneven surface.
The "waffle" style of benchwork has worked well for me and for some of my clients. It's not quite a full torsion box because you cut "windows" in the bottom plate to allow for wiring, access to turnout motors, etc. The first place I saw it described was in the modular layout of the "Sipping and Switching Society" of North Carolina. Here's a link to a page on their construction method:http://home.mindspring.com/~s-ss1/id9.html
For smaller layout sections I have used 1/4" or even 1/8" plywood for the top and bottom plates as well as for the siderails and crosspieces. Makes up into a pretty rigid structure and much lighter than the typical overbuilt model railroad benchwork.
If you are still planning to roll it around, this may not work as well, since it might not be possible to have enough "meat" for the legs to attach to withstand those stresses. But if it is going to be fixed in place and you will "drive into" a central cockpit, worth some consideration.
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Modeling the NYC/NYNH&H in HO and CPRail/D&H in N
I bought the book suggested by Ratled and looked at the tilt away table article. This type of construction may be suitable for me in my chair building a 6X9 or 6X10 layout.
One thing I did not find in the article was what kind of pivot to use for the tilt axis. A 6X10 completed layout could be very heavy considering only two support points.
I would need to pivot in 360 degrees to work on the entire area top and bottom.
Any ideas or comments?
Bruce
I hope this works for you. The reason I remember this plan is I had toyed with it for a while. At 9 or 10 feet it's getting a little bit on the long side for a span with only end points to "hang" from. You might need a center brace of some sort and that would prohibit a 360 tilt. If you made the brace temporary, you might be able to have almost everything you want.
With all that said, my thoughts were to build a framed table of 1" x X" frame similar to what MR uses on it's 4' x 8' layouts and cover with ½" plywood. I was going to use 1½" or 2" closet rod as the pivot. Stack all of the center braces before you assemble and drill a whole down the center from the brace to go through. I would use 1" material that was 3 times the thickness of the rod........ 2" rod would have 1" x 6" frame or 1½" rod would have 1" x 4½" frame material. I also thought about making it 6" at the rod and taper out to 4" at the edges to keep strong but as light as possible. You have the article so hopefully you can interpret my mental pictures I'm trying to describe.
A few newer thoughts on the tilt table if I where looking at it today. I would use 2" pipe for the pivot instead of closet rod. If you got each end threaded you use threaded end plates to secure to the leg at each end.
For 9 or 10 foot table I would look at maybe using a leg at the outer edge in the middle (4-5 feet) of the span to help with the weight (gotta watch for the sagging). If you made it removable you would be able to have access to that area when you need it or when you wanted to tilt the table..... you could even put them back in when the table was "upside down"
Again, I hope this works out for you. I hope I didn't loose you in explaining my thoughts I had.... Sometimes the fingers don't always type out the mental image too well. Drop me PM if you need to.........
And keep us posted...... pictures are always fun
PS One thing I forgot to include when I posted this last night. Let's say you are using 1"x6" material at the pivot, I would also add a 6"x6" square of material to at least one side (one on each side would be better) at the pivot to really beef up the weak spot it the system.