I am building a linear elevator for a double deck layout as shown in an article from MR Planning 2001"Going up!" I would like to keep it simple so am going with manual operation, besides I do not think I have room for a motor. I am looking a figure on page 81 as the example if you have a copy of the issue. I am planning on 24" ball bearing drawer glides as is suggested. The article is not specific about what to use for the counter wieghts. I know I need pulleys, cord and weights, what I am not sure of is what to buy specifically for my elevator and how to assemble it for smooth operation.
If you have build a manual elevator with a counter weight system I would like to hear your thoughts!
Lee
you could put some sort of mechanical 'resistor' on the axle of the pulleys to keep it from going too fast.
Also, I got the idea somewhere to use the lift mechanism of a camera tripod to raise/lift a train elevator. This would be cheap and strong enough to hold your elevator (probably). I would try contacting a local camera club and see if anyone has a tripod with busted legs or something where the lift mechanism was still in working order.
Thanks for starting this thread.
My planning for my lumber mill scene involved installing a behind-the-scenes 4 track traverser serving the 2 spurs. The point of the traverser was to accept loaded log cars and unloaded lumber cars, and pre-stage unloaded log cars and loaded lumber cars. Basically a simple staging to simulate empties-in and loads-out operation (or vice versa).
According to Iain Rice and Carl Arendt, traversers can be either horizontal or vertical. If vertical, they are very similar to your proposed train elevator. Until now, the vertical traverser made more sense. Each of the 2 levels would have 2 tracks, which would each match up with the 2 spurs going behind the mill. But your thread made me realize I had not thought about gravity in my planning, and the natural tendency of the traverser to fall to the lowest level if not held in place somehow.
Need to do some more thinking.....
Fred W
I am currently building a really preposterous elevator - an entire staging yard, turnouts and all, which has to be lowered from its totally inaccessible position in case of problems or for maintenance. Total size is approximately 14 inches wide and 13 feet long. Basically it's a (spliced) sheet of plywood supported by a steel stud box frame. The hoist mechanism is one I copied from an indoor clothes drier that once existed in my parents' apartment, hoist lines in a cat's cradle lifting at six points and maintaining level.
The counterweight(s) can be, literally, anything of appropriate weight. I intend to use a pair of small buckets and load them with rocks, broken bolts and whatever to keep the loading on the hoist line reasonable. That way, the weight can be adjusted as necessary.
My other, simpler, elevator will be a single track, lever guided and lever lifted, based on John Armstrong's, 'Dehydrated canal lock,' design. The car will be a length of steel stud with the track inside, rain gutter fashion. Since it's supposed to remain in the raised position I'll overweight the counterweight, then hold it down for the lower level train exchange.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Well I would tend to stay away from things like garage door opener motors etc. as they have way too much torque for what your trying to do but borrowing a concept similar to them what may work for you is what we did on a friends hidden staging yard. He didn't have the room to install a proper yard throat without giving up too much space, he wanted to cram as many trains in the yard as possible during an operating session so he hand I came up with a sliding bridge idea. We used kitchen draw sliders to make the bridge movable from track section to track section. No earth shattering news here as similar has been done as you planed.
To motorize it I came up with the idea of a car window motor. we made a trip to a local junk yard and took the entire inside of the door of a full sized car. with was a GM product that used a perforated tape rather then the big geared arm some older cars used. We mounted the motor to the bench work and the tape along with the track it road in to the bridge. We didn't have to travel anywhere near the distance needed to raise the window up and down so it worked out well. Another advantage was it operated on 12volts dc so we just used an old DC power supply.
He has since come up with a retro fitted design he hasn't built yet because I think he's waiting for me to build it his plan is to use an electric linear actuator. Pretty slick idea actually but it isn't as cheap as mine.