Lift Out Section

[KingEdwardII]

19 hours ago, AndrueC said:

important thing really is that once in place the track is aligned.

I use metal cam dowels - widely used in  flat-pack style furniture. 2 of these on each end of the lift out assure the horizontal alignment. I never have to realign my tracks.

 

For vertical alignment, I use carefully aligned solid sections of quality CLS timber on both the static and lift out sections. The weight of the lift-out helps ensure that these are tight together when the lift-out is in place. The cam dowels can also help here too, since they can be used to apply some force in the vertical direction to squeeze the sections together.

 

Being DCC, in my case the electrical connections are very simple - two wires. I have no accessories on my lift-out by design, but if they were necessary, that would simply add 2 more wires.

 

Yours, Mike.

[melmerby]

I use home made contacts for my lifting sections (3) across the doorway. They are hinged on one side with flexible cables for power.

Brass strips on the fixed portion, phosphor bronze springs on the lifting section, they make when in position to carry the current through.

I don't have a problem with the door arc though as the track isn't so close to the corner

These are the three in the corner. The microswitch is on the RH one so until that is down, which is the last one, no power.

 

Note the cupboard hinges, as it turns out not the best solution as there is too much play in them.

The LH one uses home made hinges, a much more accurate solution.

 

Contacts

 

Another way I used for carrying the power was ¼" jacks, which also act as hinges as on this one in the middle of the room.

 

Microswitch to cut power:

 

Might give you some ideas.

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by melmerby

[5BarVT]

That 1/4” jack hinge is clever.

Paul.

[rogerzilla]

I've seen lift out sections done with a girder bridge - far less to lift.  You'd need one for each level, and the corner makes it awkward.

[rogerzilla]

Ok, here's a thought - curved girder bridges.  You can use an MDF base for the arc and build the trusses out of scale girder extrusions - the curve shouldn't be a problem if they are scratchbuilt.  If they are long, the trusses might need to be structural, so the joints would need to be good.  A Warren truss is probably the easiest to build.

 

 

[DCB]

Having had one for twenty years plus I feel a lifting section is an excellent place to put platforms, some full size stations had platforms only 180 feet long, 60 yards or under 3 feet in 00.    As an alternative to bare non scenic plank a couple of platforms works for me.  I also have one lifting section, a bridge, above the station and it keeps working.   I have posted elsewhere about using wall paper pasting table hinges and the like to keep the width of the hinge to a minimum and the slop in the hinges to a minimum .

[Michael Hodgson]

9 hours ago, DCB said:

I have posted elsewhere about using wall paper pasting table hinges and the like to keep the width of the hinge to a minimum and the slop in the hinges to a minimum .

As a matter of interest, do you use them fold-down like the original table, or invert them and fold upwards?

[DCB]

15 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

As a matter of interest, do you use them fold-down like the original table, or invert them and fold upwards?

Mine have them inverted so the hinge is along the side of the baseboard and the actual hinge pivot is above the track with the section lifting up. .  I used  car bonnet hinges and then someone suggested i could have saved a heap of hassle by using wall paper paste table hinges. I started off with door hinges on wooden spacers but getting the hinge pins exactly in line was a nightmare and there was so much flex the alignment kept going out.