Truss bridge lift out reconstruction plus test 80 car run by


NYC_George

Well-Known Member
I finally finished my lift out the way I dreamed it would work. Before the reconstruction the lift out had to be nudged a bit to get things centered. I got tired of that so yesterday I added some needed locking supports so when I drop it in the tracks are in perfect alignment. It takes about 5 seconds to accomplish this. I also added some spring loaded electrical contacts. It works like a charm now. I made up a 80 car train to test it out and it worked perfectly. Click on the video below.
George



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Wow, very commendable work. Would you be open to a suggestion? You have very good alignment at the rails in the one case you show, but it happens that things can migrate out of whack over time, or the gremlins just decide to have a derailment one time or three. To greatly reduce the chances, I would use a small cut-off disk on a Dremel and just kiss the inner flange faces of all rail ends at a shallow angle to get a cam effect. If you ever look at what Walthers does on their turntable bridge rail ends, they do this. I did this on my last layout for a liftout, and am glad I did.

It's a thought, anyway. But you have done some very nifty work. Congratulations.
 
I would use a small cut-off disk on a Dremel and just kiss the inner flange faces of all rail ends at a shallow angle to get a cam effect. If you ever look at what Walthers does on their turntable bridge rail ends, they do this. I did this on my last layout for a liftout, and am glad I did.

I haven't thought about that Selector but I actually laid the track as if there were no lift out and then used the new larger Dremel cut off disks to cut the track for the lift out bridge. I'll have to look at a Walthers turntable to see what your talking about. Thanks.
George
 
Thanks Max, Bob & Jerome. I posted this thread on 2 Model RR sites. It seems on the other site members were confusing the electrical track pickups with a relay. It's not a relay. Their a couple of screws with wires attached. Anyway I wasn't doing much of anything today so I decided to remove the contacts, even though they work perfectly, and replace them with another idea. So I went down to Ace Hardware bought a few Furniture bolts and some springs and the below photos show how it all worked out.

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George
 
I did the same thing on my last bridge. I places short wooden screws under the end of the bridge to sit on metal L-brackets inverted on the abutments. Soldered wires to both the brackets and to the screws. When it came time to align the bridge, horizontal alignment was easy, a little tap or nudge, and vertical was achieved by raising or lowering any of the four screws. It worked reliably from Day One.
 
I did the same thing on my last bridge. I places short wooden screws under the end of the bridge to sit on metal L-brackets inverted on the abutments. Soldered wires to both the brackets and to the screws. When it came time to align the bridge, horizontal alignment was easy, a little tap or nudge, and vertical was achieved by raising or lowering any of the four screws. It worked reliably from Day One.

Crandell

Crandell the furniture bolts are for electrical pickup only. The reason for the springs are to make sure they apply consent pressure contact with the lift out bolts. Anyone planning on doing this you have to rough up the bolts finish to solder on the pickups wires. I hit it with a torch to make sure it adhered. You don't need to do any soldering on the bridge side. The bolt screwed into the wood is enough to make contact with the wires.

George
 
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