I don’t recall the official term for these things…“vertical gate” perhaps? Anyway, I have seen a few threads in the archives with some ideas but thought I would ask here for fresh ideas.
In my new layout room I will need a lifting gate (double-tracked) either across one exterior doorway or in the middle of the room in sort of a “dog bone” effect. I plan to put the new layout on foam board on top of regular dried wood frame etc. But the gate or bar under the tracks might be any sturdy “inert” material I suppose. That is one piece of roadbed that you wouldn’t want shrinking or twisting, I’m sure.
It would be about 36 inches.
I would be grateful for any feedback, tips, pics of vertical lift gates, especially helping me with:
best hinge mechanisms
techniques for track alignment/joining/releasing (I once had a modular affair that I aligned well by just slipping a railjoiner back and forth between the two closely fitted track ends.)
materials
Thanks to anyone with time to respond.
Some questions sure to come up
- Do you have the ceiling height for a lift up design or does it have to drop down?
- Do you have track length for a “dead-man” power cutoff (in case the gate is not in it’s “upright and fully locked position”?
Some past suggestion in the forums have been to use steel studs for the base of the lift out/up/down with plywood or plexiglass for the sides. This is as “inert” as it gets.
There is also the possibility of a horizontal swing gate (see forum thread t/127351 mid-way down the post). In any event you probably want to over engineer the hinge point and possible the connect point.
I did come across a web link http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14609 that might help.
I have a lift gate, a swing up, that forms a diagonal bridge across my central operating pit. I wanted it light, of course, so I used a strip, a shelf really, of Dow extruded foam 1.5" thick, about 12" wide, and the requisite length to go from one side of the layout across to the other. The span is maybe 4’. In order to strengthen the foam, I glued two strips of 1 X 3 under each side, running parallel to each other along the length of the bridge, right at the outside nether edges. See this photo. The hinges are two 2" brass ones, and there are two smallish matching brass barrel locks at the left end as you see it. Power is supplied from the yard module via the barrel locks with feeder wires secured under the screw heads.
Note that the left end, where there must be a gap in the rails between the yard module and the bridge, is also the left-side gap for the reversing loop section of which this diagonal bridge is a portion. The right-most gap is near the far turnout mostly around the way to the main you see as the lower far side track.
-Crandell
I just completed a “vertical”(meaning I lift it out/drop it into place) gate. I tried hinges, but found that with repeated use, the ends of tracks would not precisely line up; thus, resulting in derailments. I have better performance/success with “inert”, i.e., solid materials (wood: 1" x 4" for lift out/bridge) supporting tracks where they connect. No cork or foam sub-roadbed! I learned that the tolerances where track ends meet are extremely tight and unforgiving[:I]. Hope this helps; LOL.
G’ Flash
You can try a search on Lift Bridges on this fourm.
You can also go to the simple web page about the MRR I am building. About half way down the page there is a link to a PDF on how I built my lift bridges. I had to build four of them. The PDF has photos and suggestions on how to do them, and things that you should know.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzescsbb/HO_MRR/C&A-Main-Page.html