How does everyone attach the wires on there liftout section? A few pics would be nice as well. I would like some ideas without having to plug something in and out. I would like to be able to just lift it out go throught and put it back. I am running DCC if it makes a difference.
My wife likes to get to the computer room and she is getting tired of crawling under my layout to get there. the worst part is I have two duckunders.
You have two bridge solutions…
A lif out bridge will (usually) need to be unplugged electrically (and possibly mechanically) every time you want to go through it… you’ll end up going under it…
How do you lift it out when you have your hands full?
You can drop it…
Every lift out is wear and tear…
Let’s forget 1.
For 2…
You need to connect the wiring from the fixed board on the hinged side to the bridge and from one fixed side to the other.
In both cases it’s probably best to feed all the wires into a terminal block or a connector (one connector for the bridge and one for the far side fixed board).
Then, if your rich, you can use coiled cables or ribbon cable to bridge to the bridge… or… used good quality FLEX wire (rather than single core) with a sensible amount of slack to jump across to the bridge. Usually this jumper cable will position itself okay by its own weight… if it doesn’t use a a rubber band to hold it and another to pull it back into place.
When the cables reach the bridge fit another connector block or terminal block… then you will never, ever have to replace the flexible bit… if you don’t you will keep having to replace it… life’s like that.
it’s always best to make jumper cable fit only one way round…
To bridge to the other side… go up and around the door frame…
Something else you will need to do is to arrange that the power to the approach tracks is cut whenever the bridge is out… if you don’t you WILL run a train into the hole…
Hope this helps [8D]
I prefer a swing gate. Spring loaded with a door closer if possible. Auto disconnect on the approaches too.
If the lift is across the doorway, why not simply bypass the lift by following the doorframe?
Huh?
Jeff
I don’t have a lift out yet. At 70 I still can duckunder. There was a good article in the MR about a year or so ago. If I remember, there was some sort of contact that the bridge made when in place. Wires ran from the main track to the contact. The contact on the bridge side had wires running to the bridge. The opposit side of the bridge had a similar connection to continue to track on the other side. I’m sure that some smart member of the forum will have it posted very soon.
LOL
Walter
I’m not in a door way . I have pics to show what I have done so far. I could not put the lift out in the door way because the door is in the corner of the room.
This is what I have done so far. The piece I have that lift out I index. So when I put it in it goes in the same place every time. I drilled holes in each corner the size of a finnish nail.like in the picture below.
as you can see I just wired the wires toghether for now so I can use my layout.
So What do you think so far? I’m open to sugestions.
Walter
it was august of 2003 issue that you were refering too. Iv looked at every duckunder ,liftout and bridge plan in the MR from 1984 till present.
P.S. I hope when I’m 70 I can still get off the ground.
I’d suggest hinges on the fixed side (the left as I’m looking at the photos). At the far end of the bridge small brass wood screws driven under the bridge tracks, solder wires from the rails to these. On the table side (right as I look at the photo) drive brass screws in to the supporting block directly under where the bridge screws will make contact also solder these to the track coming from the right. Also on the right side I’d wire a micro switch to interrupt power to that block when the bridge is up.
A four wire flat trailer wiring connector would work. Even if you only use two wires now, you’d have room for expansion in the harness.
I found an old Model Railroader book from 1965 called “764 Helpful Hints for model railroaders”. One “hint” by Charles E. Diehl describes how he solved his problem of spanning the gaps reliably and consistantly, between sections on his portable layout. He soldered the female or socket part of dress snaps to the bottom of the rails of a short section of track. The male or stud part of the snap was soldered to the head of a screw with a wire soldered to the bottom of the screw and attached to the roadbed. The section of track snapped in placed and the electrical connections were made automatically. He says it’s been a reliable connection and saved a lot of time setting up.
I thought you could use Large Snap Fasteners something like the kind used for soft tonneau covers on pick up trucks.
The Snap Socket would attached to the bottom of the lift out. The Snap Stud would be attached to the boards (what you have now) on the benchwork.
Wires, soldered to the rails, extend to the screws, attaching under the snaps.
Of course you would have to fiddle with the boards on the benchwork to get the rail heads aligned again. But once you have it aligned, it would relocate to the exact same spot. Turning the screw of the snap stud up or down will give fine adjustment.
There are a few things I would do to make it more robust. Use a thicker and denser piece of wood (like solid oak) attached to the benchwork ends.
To make sure the stud snaps could not pull out an
gary.
thanks for the input this looks interseting. An I think we have them in stock at the body shop I work for. ther is not much call for them now, but they have been in buiness for 50 years abd they don’t throw out nothing.
I will look into this futher
thanks
Also thanks to everyone else to replied with there ideas.
Instead of a liftoff, consider a horizontal hinge, like a door. In the first picture, I would put the hinge on the right side of the bridge, and have the left side swing up against the layout towards the wall, away from the viewer in this picture. It looks like it would just fit. If not, you could put the hinge on the other side, and have it swing out towards the viewer. It would still need end support in either the open or closed position, but you wouldn’t have to worry about wiring connections which needed to be re-done each time the bridge is replaced. You would also avoid the issue of “where do I put this bridge?” once you have it removed.
I hinged mine, two levels. Works great aligns everytime.
Wiring will be just a flexible cable on the hinge side, with microswitches for track power.
Ken.