Howdy all I am new and havn't had my train out of a box in....15 years...getting old.
Anyway my new house has a basement with a ledge that runs around the entire out side edge PERFECT FOR THE HO TRAIN! Two tracks actually...I am going to go under a set of stairs through 4 walls, behind the shower in the wall and several book shelves. One problem I can't sacrifice the door out of the basement to the garage...the difference from the ledge to the top of the door is to great so I can't go over it....I need a draw bridge...any ideas...anybody done this before? got some pics...sketches.
Any and all help is greatly apriciated,
Magic Mr. Nick
Nicholas Toombs
MagicOfNicholas@hotmail.com
P.S. yes magic mr nick...the train went away when I became intrested in magic...I am now a professional magician...but I am still a big kid and I want my trains back!
I've posted a link to the Four County Society of Model Engineer's web site. Check out the set up for entering the interior of their modular layout. You could apply something very similar if not identical to your layout. Lift outs or duck under are generally frowned up on by most in the hobby. The true main reason for this is as we get older it gets harder and harder to sneak under the duck under unless you have a Chiropractor as part of your operations crew. Seriously duck Anders and lift bridges have been done successfully but getting the track to align back in the exact same place every time is a hard thing to accomplish. I have seen their layout many times and if memory serves me correct the bridge section rides on a track so it goes up and down exactly the same every time. All the wiring goes up and over and yes that blue light is there to warn operators the bridge is UP!
Good luck with your new layout and don't hesitate to post pics we all need new idea's
http://www.fcsme.org/tour.htm
how about a lift out bridge?? place a board across the span so it will line up your rails. place some type of blocks under the ends of your span and fasten them to your shelf. drill a couple of holes so you can dowel your bridge board into those blocks. that way it cant slip back and forth, but you can lift it up to remove it. or you can put a hinge on one side and dowel the other. that way you dont have to remove the jumper wires everytime you lift it...
Welcome, Nick. Glad to have you aboard.
My question is, do you want a working model of a drawbridge (Scherzer rolls back away from the opening, others lift straight up - 18 full-scale inches in the case of the Cape Cod Canal bridge?) Or do you simply want to get the tracks safely across the gap? If the latter, the choices include lift up, drop down and swinging gate variants.
This has been addressed frequently in the Forums, but I don't know if the, "New - improved," search function is up to finding any of them yet. There have also been articles in the model press which could be helpful. I hope somebody with access to the necessary links will jump in and fill in the blanks I'm leaving. By careful placement of aisleways and such, I managed to engineer my need for such a structure out of existence.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
yes I am looking for a working bridge that I can raise up out of the way....I am not looking for any detailed to scale bridge....I want a simple duel track around my basement....my partner might be building a village but what I want and am looking for now is away to go infront of a door I can't permanently block...I was thinking instead of the bridge going up maybe I could build a shelf that folds down and out of the way like a bartender would have....folding up I see problems with the track having issues "folding" into itself.
THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGUESTIONS...
btw the search bar gave me 144 pages of little info I needed...
Big day tomorrow I will be waving a wand more than you could shake a stick at.
Nick
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I was at a club open house recently, and took at look at their swing-up drawbridge. They put the pivot point about an inch or two outward from the rail cut, so the bridge swings up, but the track right at the gap drops down. This avoids the problem of the bridge "folding back on itself." Sorry, no pictures or diagrams, but the concept is pretty simple.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Here is a good link to a previous discussion. Lots of photos.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/138509/1546881.aspx#1546881
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.
gandydancer19 Here is a good link to a previous discussion. Lots of photos. http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/138509/1546881.aspx#1546881
Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
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