A hole in the wall X4 - a liftout bridge (page 12)

[TrainNut]

I worked a bit more on the backdrop building over the last couple of days. As I got it used, it was missing quite a few windows. There was also a big gap in between the two halves the way it finally ended up getting placed. Sooo, I thought, let's throw it on the printer and make a color copy of the facade. This I did several times...


I then cut out the windows and taped them to the inside of the structure to replace those that were missing. I also cut out a large section of the facade and placed it in between the two halves to tie it all together.






I think that's gonna do it for a while. I need to add some sort of a road in front, ballast the track, add some shrubbery etc. All in good time now.

[tetters]

At first I was like, "Oh great, first the chop saw and now the mechanical press to squash the poor building! Do you not have a shred of decency in you SIR!"

Then I realized it was a scanner...

[Gary S]

:o Just Xerox the buildings??? What will they think of next? TN, love the ideas!

[nachoman]

I like creative approaches! If you look at Ralph's layout improvement blog, he built some background buildings using plexiglas - a very useful technique to get cheap and quick buildings.

[P5se Camelback]

Splendid!

I just love creative solutions ... and that one definitely qualifies!

KUDOS!

[Ralph]

Connecting the building halves with a scan of the building? Brilliant!!!

[Herc Driver]

That's a great idea! Another one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas.

Great progress too!

[TrainNut]

Thanks guys. On the one hand I think of it as a pretty creative solution and on the other hand it's just a down and dirty quick fix. Still, at the rate I get things done, down and dirty happens a lot sooner than trying to kitbash a connecting piece from styrene and having it look at all decent.

Tetters, I'll see if I can't get the creative juices figured out to shock you some more with another crude but yet innovative approach to model railroading!

[TrainNut]

Time to change gears...

So I'm roughing out my waterfront scene and my initial depth of the harbor (from water line to top of dock) was 1-1/8" or 15 scale feet.


With some further thought, I decided to reduce that depth to 5/8" or 8.3 scale feet. I did this by adding two layers of cardboard (picture only shows one) and a layer of hardboard on top of that. I used hardboard for the top layer as I'm still uncertain as to which method I will use to replicate the surface of water and did not want the cardboard to warp if it were to get "wet" in any way shape or form. Thus, I figured the hardboard would be more workable surface.


The captain of the ship "dropped in" to give his approval as well as the local law enforcement and the contractor responsible for building the harbor wall.


Now that the water level has been determined, the fascia needs to be removed and "modified".


Sometime during the night, the pilings arrived and unloading has begun.

[TrainNut]

Allrighty then. When I designed my layout, I designed an aisleway that needed a bridge of some sort to cross a gap 27 1/2" wide. As the layout evolved, the bridge did not and while I'd had a ton of elaborate ideas, none had actually come to fruition. The plan...


The gap...


Then one day I realized that you could attach the double line Kato bridges...


... end to end and that if I put three of them together,


... the distance came out to 29-5/16"... a near perfect fit for my 27 1/2" gap.


They are also structurally sound and do not need any additional support. I truly lucked out and came up with the perfect lift out solution to cross the gap.

[Gary S]

TN, I was having trouble viewing the photos, but my net seems a bit sluggish tonight. Anyway, good to see that you are making progress! The bridge across my door is similar to yours.

[TrainNut]

TN, I was having trouble viewing the photos, but my net seems a bit sluggish tonight. Anyway, good to see that you are making progress!

Hmmm, anyone else having problems seeing the pictures? I originally screwed up and attached them as url links instead of img links but I fixed that within 10 minutes of posting. I can see them now but that doesn't always mean everybody else can. Perhaps Photobucket had a hiccup.
Thank you Gary for the comments. I hope you try again a little later on if you weren't able to see them all.

[Gary S]

I see them now. I was looking at them when they were just links. The photos appear in the thread now. Thanks!

It looks like there may be a bit of sag in the middle? If so, maybe a piece of aluminum DIN rail on the bottom would help?

[nachoman]

Hey TN, I haven't been browsing this site as much lately and just now saw the harbor scene you are putting together. Things are looking quite good there! I also like the bridge - is it a lift-out (removable) or is it hinged at one end? Are you having problems getting the tracks to line up on either end of the bridge?

[TrainNut]

Gary, there is just a hint of sag between the three pieces. I never noticed it until I took that one closeup photo. It does not cause any uncoupling issues and so I'm inclined to ignore it for now.

Nacho, the bridge is completely removeable. When I put it in place, I actually slide one end into rail joiners and just drop the other end down in between some T pens I have in place to guarantee alignment. I've run plenty of trains across and so far no derailments from mis aligned rails.