My point to point, 16 inch wide shelf layout is built in a spare 16 x 16 bedroom with a closet door, bedroom door and bathroom door at one end. So it goes around the walls of the rest of the room. I have been thinking about connecting the two ends. I don’t like duckunders, but I wanted some staging and the ability to do some continuous running. Fortunately the Tonopah and Tidewater didn’t run long trains or very many of them.
There is about a 6.5 foot gap between the two ends of my railroad and a 90 degree angle between the ends. I took an 8 foot, 7.25 inch poplar plank and held it in position as my wife marked the angles. I then attached two 1x2 inch boards in each side to form a girder that was rigid vertically. I added wood angle along the two ends of the layout that the plank could fit in to support it. It worked perfectly. A three track yard will fit on the plank. It is high enough to duck under if necessary but can be removed when the layout is not being run. I am changing the track on the layout to curve onto the bridge and I lay the atlas flex track for the staging yard tonight. I wire it tomorrow and start running before the end of the week.
I’ll post a picture of it when I get the chance tonight. I am pleased at how well this has worked so far. - Nevin
Did that on my layout, which is three decks, top two levels cross an aisleway. top one is single track, and at 5ft 10inches is a duckunder (and a head thumper if you don’t pay attention), the other is a hinged swing up bridge on a partial curve. Has been in place for about 20 years with little modifications or adjustments required. Some of the younger guys just duck under, I lift it.
My first layout had a lift out section. I learned the hard way how to power it so that when the lift out wasn’t in place, that I should have wired the buss/feeders to the lift out, and let the approaches get their power from the lift out ONLY when it was in place. This prevents the dreaded “plunge into Concreteville”. A mini plug wired to the lift out was all that was required. It fed power to the approaches using cabinet “bullet” latches.
Well done. I love operations and can see the fun and challenge of point to point. But, I admit sometimes I love just watching them run and 'round and 'round. Nice job on the bridge!
