I am buliding a fairly large layout “in the round” and need a good , tried and true, idea for some type of walk through door on the layout. I am 52 years old and don’t have the desire to crawl on my hands and knees to the center of the layout. I thought I had it figured out by cutting and hinging a narrow section of the layout but the track was too close and bound when opening the door. HELP!?
The section you hinged, was it cut 90*, or perpendicular, to the layout facia? You have a binding issue because of the arc of travel with the corners of the hinged bit (or any very tight tolerance between the two sections). What you can do is angle the separation of the sections 10* or so, that way when you swing the section, the corners aren’t traveling in an arc that will meet the other corner.
I hope that makes some sense?
EDIT. Like this. With angled separation, the two halves will always travel away from each other when you swing it, that way you have no issues where any part of either of them will want to swing its arc into the opposing piece.
Loose Caboose,
See Elmer McKay’s page at
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzescsbb/HO_MRR/C%26A-Main-Page.html
He has a page linked from there with instructions for lift bridges.
Regards,
Dave
Welcome to the forums.
There have been many articles on various types of entry gates for layouts. There are lift outs, which means you have a place to store it, but if it is only used when operating, may be a good choice. There are also gates that are hinged to swing in or out, lift up or tip down.
Two places to look for some ideas:
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Go down the right hand column on this page to Search Our Community, enter “gate” or similar terms,you should get some threads.
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MR has just gotten their Index of Magazines going again (Thank You folks) . I just read on the General Forum page, I think it is under Resources found on the faint gray line at the top of this page. A search there should give you some more possibilities.
The one I plan to use is a lift gate. A simple flat surface with two hinges on top of the joint. The one I have seen put an old biece of carpet over the joint later, rough field effect. Could also be a good use for one of those grass mats that don’t seem to have too much favorable press. The end that comes down has a simple alignment triangle and clasp lock down.
The one thing you want to be sure of regardless of what type gate you use is to have it so that when your gate is open that the power to the track BOTH sides of the gate are disconnected as well. Don’t need your loco and cars trying to fly across the abyss.
Good luck,
Richard