hinged section of railroad layout.

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I am building a layout with a hinged section to enter the layout as I now have trouble bending, must be age catching up with me.

I would welcome any advise in how to do this.

God bless, Alan

2

Alan, Welcome to the forum.

I am building a layout that has a swing up section. I saw this method at a show in April and it seems to work well.

I haven’t got the track down yet but the joints meet squarely and it is a smooth flat surface.

Here are a few pictures.

The swing up section is 3’ long and 2’ wide. Fairly big for a swing up.

The entire section is 5’ long. I used 3/4" oak plywood for the whole section. The side sections are 3/4" oak plywood also. I cut them to be 4" wide and approximately 4’ long with one end raised and rounded so it would pivot at the same height as the finished bench. I used 1/4" carriage bolts for the hinges.

I use two latches to secure it down but it seats well without using the latches.

A picture of it closed. You can see the same plywood bolted to the sides of the benchwork. These pieces hold the one foot sections.

Another angle. Again, I used the same plywood for the inner sections as the pivot point and bolted them to the benchwork.

You can’t tell it in the photos but I cut the plywood at a 45 degree angle that can be seen on the arms supporting the bench top

3

[#welcome] Alan,

I built a swing gate for my layout and it has been in use since March 2007, so 9 months and counting and still no issues. It really is just a hinged door with track and roadbed on top.

Here is a web link to the original MR forum post I made in reference to my swing gate build:

http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1059625/ShowPost.aspx

Also, here is a web link to my Swing Gate Tutorial:

http://piedmontdivision.rymocs.com/swinggate.html

And a web link to just photos of the swing gate:

http://piedmontdivision.rymocs.com/Photosqtr04.html

Hope this helps!

Ryan

4

Mine is a swing down bridge that runs diagonally across my central operating pit so that I can have a reversing loop. I simply measured and built the bridge to fit so that it could swing down, and then placed two 2" brass hinges on the one end and two brass barrel locks on the other. Wires to power the track on the bridge get power through the barrel locks.

A feeder runs from the bus to the wrap under the head of one of the barrel lock mounting screws. The feeder that provides power to this swing down section has one end under the screw head of the other half of the barrel lock, the one mounted on the swing down, and rises like any other feeder to be soldered somewhere along the rails. Works like a charm.

If you don’t use one long piano lid-type hinge, you will have to take pains to align the two or three smaller ones that you do use, or else they will bind/and/or force the bridge to deflect away from its intended meet with the other tracks.

5

As the first three replies indicate, there are several different ways to approach this situation. I am going to limit my remarks to “details” that will help to make the drawbridge a pleasure, rather than a PITA.

  • Connect the two ‘abutments’ with a floor-level link so they will not move apart or out of alignment. A 1/2 inch plywood ‘doorsill’ under the nearest legs will do it. So will anchoring the legs to the floor with angle brackets if drilling into the floor is not an issue.
  • Use serious hardware. If you build a hinged door, use barn hinges, not cabinet hinges. If you pivot your (fillintheblank) around a pipe, install metal bushings. Mount the hinges with bolts, not screws - if the wood shrinks, you can tighten a nut a lot more successfully than you can re-torque a wood screw.
  • Use serious alignment devices. Sliding dead bolts will keep things solid during operations. So will steel pins that fit into holes in a steel plate.
  • Arrange to kill power to any track that crosses the abyss for at least a train length from the opening any time the bridge isn’t properly aligned for traffic. (John Armstrong’s last serious problem on his Canandaigua Southern layout involved trying to back a train over a bridge that hadn’t been built!)

Just a few ideas that I kicked around when it looked as if I would have to use something similar (I am about as flexible as an Egyptian obelisk!)

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

6

Thanks everybody for your help and advice, much appreciated.

I’ve now got the hinged section working!!!

God bless, Alan

7

I’ve just built another hinged section using 1" thick mdf board very heavy, And on your advice bevelled the unhinged end and cut the track with my new Dremmel cutter, and it works a treat.

God bless and thanks again for your wonderful help and advice, Alan.