I have been thinking about connecting the two ends of my point to point railroad to make a continuous run/staging area. Unfortunately it must cross about 7 feet with a closet door, bathroom door and bedroom door to get to the other side. So it has to be long, light and easily movable. No duckunders for me!. In Shelf Layouts, Ian Rice recommends plywood bridges with masonite sides for stiffening but says that 5 feet is the limit. Any suggestions? Any pictures of how you bridged such a gap? Thoughts? It would be nice to have a continuous run on occasions and a staging/fiddle yard would help operations. - Nevin
If the bridge is a straight shot across the gap, why not use a 2x4 stud on edge with a wider swath of 1/4 inch luan on top?
SAy about 3-4 inches wide of luan if a single track going across it. It would be only the weight of the 2x4 and some luan and a few pieces of flextrack, should be sturdy enough and DON'T forget to line the sides of the "bridge"with a railing of some kind JUST IN CASE it decides to derail somewhere while travelling across it. A few brad nails driven in near the edge and some florists wire strung across them should work for a railing that would also be light weight and relatively unobtrusive..
Be sure also to have some kind of disconnect of power to the tracks leading up to the bridge on both sides so that you don't accidently run a train off the "ends of the earth" when the bridge is not in place. A plug at each end of the bridge will connect power to the tracks to complete the circuit.
If you find one 2x4 not sturdy enough, you can always "sister" it to another. It will be heavier though.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Hey Nevin
If I were doing the bridge I would use a piece of 1/2" plywood 4" wide, cut out of a 4'X8' sheet. Hang a piece of 1/4" by 4" on each side using Carpenters glue and tacks. Making what looks like an upside down gutter. Use a piece of 1/2" plywood to box each end an two or three spaced equally between them.This will give you a very light and ridged beam. Glue all joints. If you don't have a table saw you could look for some one to cut the pieces. Just an idea.
Lee
Get over to your nearest home improvement center and pick up some aluminum channel stock, it will be more stable then wood, my local Ace Hardware sells it in 10 foot increments for just a few bucks and it is easily cut with a hacksaw.
Dave
I like the use of plywood or aluminum. I have a concern about the tendency for the 2x4 to warp or sag. Plywood with sides boxed in would be better. I'd go further and combine comments above into an "H" cross section, protecting from derails as well as the support against sagging.
Nevin, two words:
steel stud.
Light, dead straight, easily cut to length and easy to provide with attachment fittings. Plenty strong enough to support an HO train extending its full length - and then some. Built-in guard rails. Easy to handle, and not too awkward to stow when not in use. Gotta love it!
I use steel studs with the track laid inside, rain gutter fashion, for cassettes (up to 56.5 inches long) and up to full length to support tangent track in the Netherworld. Standard procedure is to caulk a layer of extruded foam to the 'bottom' of the stud, then caulk flex to that. A couple of cassettes, used to transport bad-order rolling stock to the workbench, have rerailers at the active ends. One special case has the flex caulked directly to the steel (minimum thickness to provide clearance over a lower track.)
My cassettes are single-ended, and don't lock in place (only used while I'm holding them with one hand.) All I do is slide the rail ends (even with the end of the steel under them) into joiners soldered to the 'dock' rails. That end of the stud rests on a platform about 1/2 inch wide, the other end is supported by the (left) Great Hand of God - leaving my right hand free to operate controls.
Seems to me that it would be easy to add vertical pins to lock the end of a steel stud to your fixed layout. Mark Newton used horizontal pins insulated from the channel stock he used for a removable bridge, then powered the bridge track through them. Either way, I would recommend a solid under-stud support about 1.5 inches wide under each end, with some method arranged to achieve positive rail alignment.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Clark County garage)
Steel stud gets my vote. It will be one finger light.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
i used 1x3's and spanned 10 feet. i had to add on each end of the runners 1 foot to get to 10 feet long and it is 14 inches wide. i couldnt find a 10 ft. 1x3 reason for the add on. i just added a cross pieces every 16 inches to tie it all together and then glued pink foamboard on top. i made it to slide out on each end. its not all that rigid, but it works.......
Steel stud or white metal is the way to go, inexpensive , straight and light.