MPRR wrote: Do you guys typically scenic your swing bridges, lift bridges, duckunders, etc..???? I know some do, or are they mainly used to get across from one side to the other? A purely function only area. Thanks, Mike
Do you guys typically scenic your swing bridges, lift bridges, duckunders, etc..???? I know some do, or are they mainly used to get across from one side to the other? A purely function only area.
Thanks, Mike
Mine is currently just track, but it is a foot wide, and will eventually have some terrain.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I built this 6" wide section to carry a single track across the opening to my around-the-walls layout. It is a liftout that sits down into two cleats on either end. The cleats will be attached to the adjoining layout sections at either end of the liftout. This photo shows the basic fabrication complete, with the two cleats sitting on the workbench at their respective ends of the liftout bridge:
The liftout is designed the way it is because I wanted to model a bridge over a riverbed. The finished roadbed will sit on top of the two "wing" sections at either end of the liftout, and span the gap in the middle using a bridge or trestle. The picture below shows roughly how it will look with an "artist's rendering" of the bridge in place. The completed scene will be fleshed out with plaster cloth to model the rocky banks of the riverbed, a river flowing across the wood "deck," and other scenery materials when finished.
This photo shows a close-up of one end to show the detail of how the cleat interlocks with the liftout section.
Same angle but with the cleat in place
Hopefully all that made sense. It's still under construction right now, and I'm getting ready to move to another state, so I don't know when I'll get around to finishing it. Hopefully it will work as well as I hope it does!
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
If your talking about my post, yeah. Thats why I don't ever lift it out..... The main reason I put the lift out in is because the room is a storage room, and removing the liftout would be much easier than lifting over it.
I know it doesn't make much sense, but I thought I'd put the sugestion out there for what it was worth.
My around the walls layout has to cross three doors. I will start building the liftout sections tommorrow. My layout is of the domino type, 1/2" plywood with 1*4 clear pine outside framing around the edges. I dado the out side frame to accept the plywood. Some Titebond wood glue and few finish nails gives a light weight and stiff domino. The liftouts will be narrow dominos, 6 " wide, and as long as the doorway it has to cross. The liftout will sit on pieces of 3/4" stock that sticks out 1 1/2" from the permanently fastened benchwork at the door openings. Once all toghether, I will drill for 1/4" dowels, up thru the "stickout" into the liftout sections. Glue the dowel to one piece, and leave it loose in the other. The dowels will guide the liftout into alignment when the liftout is placed into the layout. Hopefully the dowel alignment pins will be repeatable enough to get the track to line up and permit trains to cross the gap without derailments.
I was originally going to do swing up gates, but the ceiling is low and the layout is high, and the swingup's would strike the ceiling before getting even near vertical.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Lift up gate I put together really quick. Will use sections of removeable track to join across.
I use a swing gate.
Here is a shot during construction:
This is an old thread with liftoffs I built for my subway tunnels:
http://cs.trains.com/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=989734
My main rule was No Tracks On The Liftoff Sections. So, these are small, and fit between the tracks. I use a thin layer of plaster cloth with a bit of Gypsolite on it to bridge the gap between liftoff and the main layout. I put a lot of ground cover around the joint as well. I find it helps a lot to have an irregularly-shaped edge to make it harder for the eye to spot the discontinuity.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Search the forum for "duckunders." Here's one post:
http://cs.trains.com/forums/1272306/ShowPost.aspx
-John
Thanks John. I'm asking about the type that would cover a door, or to get into the pit of the layout, where my controls will be
thanks again guyes
ray
Ray,
Are you talking about a scenery area liftout for access to your track or are you talking about a narrow track liftout that might be used to span a doorway?
With today's preference for linear designs (for very good reasons) not a lot of layouts will have scenery liftouts any more. Most people will tell you that if you think that you need a scenery liftout then you need to redesign your layout.
If you are talking about doorway duckunders then you may want to clarify your query and you might get more responses.
Good luck,-John
I would love to see yours, and how you built them. I'm curious about the type that would be blocking a door.
Thank you much.
Ray