Visualize one half of a basement filled with an arround the walls layout with a 90 degree turn of 48" radius into a portion of the remaining basement and a 180 degree swing back to the wall to house the staging tracks. Now picture far more trains than I could ever stage in the 12 tracks there. So I am thinking about double decking the staging and making the whole thing able to be raised. If I connect cables at multiple positions to the rock solid framework I can balance the weight of the railroad by adding weight to the other end of the cables attached to five gallon buckets or something similar. Then all I need is a couple of rods through each side of the ends to keep it alligned and upper and lower stops with a pin device to lock the levels. Sound feasble?
they’re probably right . any flex at all in the framework and your scenery is going to crack and fall off . assuming you have scenery that is . it would be one heck of an engineering feat if you pulled it off though !
i think it would be easier just to not put every engine and car you have on the layout all at once . maybe more realistic too
ernie
I’d think a better approach would be to try to link the two staging levels using some semblance of a helix or a “no-lix” or long inclined ramps leading from the mainline to/from the two staging areas. Or use some kind of casette system to move a single train from one staging level to the other.
Personally, I think a lift mechanism for a double-decked 12-track yard sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, and you might be asking for a headache. But that’s just my [2c] - others may chime in and say it’s a brilliant idea and even offer plans on how to build it.
12 tracks on each deck? Is there no room to run a grade from the a staging up to the main layout level? Sounds like there is 270 degrees of curvature there to play with.
It seems to me if one is going to go to that much trouble for a train elevator there should be three levels in it.
Years ago MR has a double garage layout that a guy did this and filled coffee cans with lead shot to raise and lower it. I agree the mechanism will have to be rock solid but a couple of engineered trusses should do it like they use under floors now. The entire plan calls for that area to eventually a return loop with a helix and a second loop on the upper level. The problem is I will be retiring in about 5-7 years and relocating the whole thing from Chicago to Traverse City, Michigan so I figure I can get one level finished in about two years (modular) and then start running trains. I can add the helix and second level after the move and yes I thought about three levels but that seems over the top. Thi is strictly staging that is off the railroad and would never have scenery.
Everybody seems to be making a bit too much of a fairly straightforward piece of model engineering!
If you keep the specialwork on one level and easily accessible for maintenance, there is no reason why you can’t build two or even three levels of straight tracks and stage a dozen trains on each. Use good quality drawer slide hardware at each corner of the lift and two vertical jackscrews (linked to each other and the lift motor with bicycle chain) to run the ‘parking garage’ up and down. If it is stub ended, it would be a good idea to put a solid closure on the stub end and slope the storage tracks down about 0.5% in that direction.
I recall a magazine article which showed a cable-lifted staging complex that was four tracks wide and four levels deep. The owner was reasonably happy with it.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a planned ‘dehydrated canal lock’)
Would something like this make more sense?
What will they think of next? Neat!
http://www.aglasshalffull.org/article-logging-train.html
Maybe you could expand on this idea?
Another possibility, taking a page from John Armstrong, is the vertical turnout, a flexible piece of plywood roadbed that can be lifted up, or pushed down, to connect the rails with a different level. I do not think I have ever seen a picture of Armstrong’s vertical turnout because if memory serves, it was bured in a mountain.
This website shows a drawing however
And this guy shows pictures of one in large scale that perhaps conveys the idea
http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=17068
Dave Nelson
3T:
And to make it even more straightforward / caveman crude, leave out the switchwork and hoist mechanism, and build a rack with a bunch of interchangeable traversers, with access on one level and storage on the others. Even the wiring for the traverser tracks could be left out if there was a separate storage area for the locos.
Weight could be a problem if the traversers were made too big. I think it might be best to add sides and ends, one removable, so the trains wouldn’t fall out. Crash.
If you’re talking about 12 track staging on each level, what you propose should be no problem. It’s nothing more than what has been done for years with lift bridges over waterways for years. The engineering will be a bit hairy, but not impossible. The lift mechanism could be either wire rope and pulley or a screw-type mechanism.