Layouts and layout building

R. T. POTEET wrote:

For those of yoou trying to get a screw to anchor into the edge of plywood you have a real problem: IT CAINT BE DONE. But it is done by cabinet makers every day. 1)  Drill a hole in the surface of the plywood; 2)  Glue in a short length of dowel (same size as the hole you drilled in step #1); 3) Sand Dowel flush with the surface of the plywood, and; 4) Drill into the edge of the plywood and into the dowel You now have a solid piece of wood to anchor your hinge screws into.

Rpoteet,

You reminded me of a very simple idea that I learned like 20 years ago in shop class... DUHHH!!!!   I forgot that lil trick!  Hence, why I am NOT a master (or even journeyman) carpenter.  Thank god I have a day job!

Brian

Similar to others here, I have two benchwork areas to be connected via a RR bridge. 

For now I have constucted a simple temporary liftout but it is a PITA to lift it out then put it back as this area gets a lot of trafic.

So, I am in favor of the swing or lift gate. 

Regards,

A different approach...

We've all had the hinged gate screwed into wooden post problem. I fixed my large driveway gate sag problem a few years back permanently... I through bolted a piece of angle iron onto the wooden post then mounted the hinges to the angle iron. perhaps something like that could be done here. I'm pretty sure you can buy 1" square metal tubing at Home Depot. Drill thorugh holes in the steel and attach hinges that way. No more pull out problem!

 just my .02

tohowalk wrote:

Just a thought here - I have never built a layout that needs a gate, but my next one will. Would it be possible to prevent "droop" by putting a castering wheel on the gate? Run a leg down the open side of the gate, opposite the hinge side, and attach a caster to the bottom. It's possible this could lead to a bit of a twist in the gate from top to bottom when opening and closing (which wouldn't be hard to overcome), but wouldn't it control or eliminate "droop"?

This requires a pretty level floor under, or some kind of spring mounted caster to compensate for floor irregularities.  This is something I've pondering and experimenting with for a couple years in 1:1 scale...wife wants a double (if not double bi-fold) gate across our driveway, but the drive is compound tapered in that area for drainage.

After having put the roadbed and track onto the swing gate and then allowed it to dry overnight. (Actually setup for a couple of weeks) Then added some CA to both sections where I would be making the cuts to the track and roadbed and let that set for a few days too (overnight would be fine though). I can finally open the swing gate again, crawling on the floor to get under the gate gets old quick!

I made the final cuts yesterday and here are the results:

Making the Cut!

The Cut

Swing Gate Swung!

Excellent...like surgery!  I would now file the flange sides of the rail heads to bevel them...all four ends, and also bevel all four rail tops at the end, just the slightest bit.  Those bevels will greatly insure that you cross the gap many times safely with minimal hitches or picking.

Nice and patient approach you had there....well done.

Zandoz wrote:

Something came to mind that I'm not sure how to explain....but I'll give it a try.  Instead of traditional hinges, think pivot points...like the stationary pivot point of a bi-fold door.  The better bi-fold door pivots are adjustable both horizontally and vertically, and the weight of the door/gate sits on the pivot point, rather than outside of it increasing the lever effect of the weight of the gate.  Instead of building a gate from scratch, cut down a hollow core door, and fasten a flat deck to the top edge of it. <shrug>

Thank you.

I have an old door in reasonably good condition. I will cut THAT down.

If in doubt, use steel!

Seriously, the specific steel I would use is a pretty hefty machine screw - #10 pan head, or even 1/4" if it will fit - with a flat washer,  lock washer and dome-top nut on the far side.  A hinge or barrel bolt secured with that caliber fastener will NOT loosen of its own volition, and can be tightened if the wood shrinks.

If vertical alignment might become an issue, make the roadbed support adjustable and leave the swinging hinges alone.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

pilot wrote:

It seems like what you need is an adjustment screw for both vertical and horizontal fit, on both ends. Then you can close the gate and useing screw/clamps adjust it to a perfect fit. I am skeptical that there is ANY foolproof way of getting it to stay lined up. Everything moves, plan on it moving and have the adjustment you need to get in into tolerance.

Pilot,

Good point you made there!

For the vertical shift the throw side of the swing gate clears this small apron and matches up with the 72 degree bias cut and also prevents the gate from swinging too far.

 Also, the dead bolt latch prevents any horizontal movement once the bolt is thrown.

PUBLICATION ALERT!!!

Just got my July issue of That Other Magazine - the one that doesn't sponsor this forum.

Check out the article, "Building a Model Railroad Gate," by Fred Headon.  I'm not going to give anything but a vague explanation (to keep from treading on anyone's copyright toes,) but the problems of gate-top scenery, multi-level trackage on the gate, electrical protection (killing approach tracks) and bulletproof alignment are well and thoroughly explained.

I hesitate to publicize Kalmbach's competition, but this one is worthy of a long, slow read (with notebook in hand.)

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - planned gate eliminated by redesign)

I got a number of emails over the past week or so requesting that Part II be written up so in response I've spent the past few days cobbling it together. The completed web page for Part II of the tutorial on the swing gate is published on my PD web site.

One note to mention: The swing gate main construction will reach it's first year of installation in March and so far I can say that it has held up nicely and I have not seen any need to make any adjustments or re-alignment.

The links for both tutorial installments are here:

Building a Swing Gate and alternative to the duckunder Part I

Building a Swing Gate and alternative to the duckunder Part II

Cheers,

Ryan

good to see that the gate has worked as well as you had hoped and without any problems. i`m sure this is because you kept it simple . 

IMO many of the replies to your post have tended to make things more complicated than neccessary

i have a gate almost the same which has worked well for me for about 12 months and I find I don`t even have to use the bolt to hold it in place.