Hey, great news, I’ve negotiated with the CEO and have some more real estate available!!
The picture attached is of our living room, Brigettes toys, computer, my layout. The plan is to continue round to the left towards the couch with two tracks. Along the left wall, behind and slightly above the couch, the two tracks will merge and turn towards the centre of the room.
I have bought the single track bridge ( which is 4.5’ long ) from a friend $20 bucks, cheap!! It will bridge the gap from the couch back to this end of the desk. The track becomes two again next to/behind the desk.
It will be removeable when I’m not running trains. The only problem is it needs to swing on hinges or lift out and it needs a firm base to sit on, any ideas, do I build a small piece of bench work for it?
I thought I’d run a threaded rod under the bridge to give the whole thing some strength, it bends a little.
I’m not sure I follow your descriptions. Are you saying that the bridge you have pictured will bridge from somewhere near the current couch position to somewhere near where the desk is currently stationed? If so, and if the bridge sags more than a couple of mm near the middle, it will be more like 15 mm with a loco on it, and that will represent a 1.5% grade, or thereabouts. Not good. Your idea of a rod, threaded or no, is reasonable, although I would bow the rod, only slightly, and orient it so that the apex of the bow abutts the nether deck surface right at the middle of the span, thus providing a fairly substantial reinforcement. Obviously, the ends of the rod would be anchored into a manufactured abuttment, both to keep the rod fixed in orientation and to provide a nice and neat slip-in component for that location. Bridge, rod, and abuttments all in one neat package.
Crandell your exactly on my wave length, so the threaded rod should perhaps be bowed upwards to allow for loco weight? I can see how that would work, and build attached abuttments cool like that idea. Cheers
I’d suggest that you buy your friend a case of his favorite beverage, or a couple of bottles of nice wine. That’s quite a fine bridge, and it will be a great focal point.
The bridge pilons are less than the span you are spanning. So it will look funny anyway with the pilons floating in space.
What I would do is to create an I beam out of 3/4 inch plywood and add landscaping, water, etc. to give a reason for the bridge. The would also give you something to hinge so it can swing.
Chip has made a good point. The trick in all of this, however, is to make the use of this new space manageable, and much better if by one person. CEO has authorized the extension, but I’m not sure her agreement extended to helping you to install/unistall as you wish. So this bridge must stand, if you will, on its own, and be useable by you, only. So, by all means, landscape your new approaches to the bridge, but you will have to figure out a way to make the bridge, itself, look like it belongs there. Chip is right in that the pylons are going to look suspended in air…wrong bridge for the crossing.
Okay, so now what? Well, maybe a two-piece module. Lay an interlocking water course modeled on 1/2" plywood, say two feet wide, at an appropriate height below the bridge, one that falls into place at each end. Then, part #2 is the bridge and abuttments that sit very neatly, if done right, just above that so that the bridge ‘fits’. All done by one person in 36 seconds, and you get Chip’s concern and yours looked after.
For the fine fit of the lower water course model on plywood, have it sit on soft felt pads. That way, the bridge could be made to sit hard on it and both will compress the entire module onto the pads to get a close enough alignment from leading rails onto the bridge. Next, how to wire it all.
I’ve slept on the problem and came to the same conclusion, the bridge needs tall concrete pillers so it looks like a viaduct. And built on a solid but removable base, then a small hinged gate near the desk for human traffic.
The bridge could be clipped to the layout at the couch end and the small gate hinged off the desk end of the bridge. Unclip pull away and store the whole thing.
Another option is a very simple bridge - maybe made from channels of aluminum. (try www.mcmaster.com - large supplier of everything).
The aluminum would be very strong, and would just look like a piece of metal going across the room. You could accidentally drop it, etc. and not worry about breaking it.
You could make metal contacts with thin strips of aluminum or steel that are flexible - so they’re sprung into place. When you remove the bridge, the circuit is automatically broken.
This way anyone else could remove the bridge if they need to also - it could be very easy.
Not as attractive as a “real” looking bridge, but maybe much more practical?
Hey, I know that you said your friend sold that bridge to you, but where did he get it from? (who made it) . It’s a hot looking bridge. I’m trying to find me one just like that. Help a brother out
