If you looked at Video Update #6 you saw a live demonstration of the swing gate. Actually, the gate in the video wasn't quite complete - so in the interest of full disclosure here are some photos showing that it is indeed more than just a "piece of plywood and a couple of hinges..."
The underside of the plywood "bridge" is braced along most of its length by a plywood brace. Note how the brace gets thinner as it gets further from the hinges - an attempt to minimize sag and at the same time minimize the pressure on the hinges!
That plywood brace is itself strengthened by a couple of pieces of 1 x 2 arranged in an "L".
The hinge end with the bridge in the open position shows the hinge arrangement - nothing fancy here, I told Stic to just be sure everything was really sturdy! I think there's two boxes of screws holding this thing together!
This shot shows the swing gate in its fully open position - it opens up enough to touch the fascia on the layout.
Next trick is to figure out how to get the track in place. Stic tells me that's my problem.
Thanks to Stic Harris for his help with this project, and with all the various thankless tasks I always seem to assign him!
Today also happens to be his 50th birthday. He's taking a well-earned respite from model railroading to enjoy coastal Maine with his lovely wife. And he's officially joined the ranks of those us who complain we're too stiff, sore, or otherwise impaired to work on top of or under our layouts!
(16 July: Edited to actually upload the photos)
Stic came by yesterday and after a somewhat slow start with the planned assembly of the last of the IKEA Ivar cabinets being deferred to a future date due to shortage of a unique piece of IKEA hardware best referred to as a "thing-a'mick- bob" we fell back to regroup and decided the best use of our time wasn't hanging more track lights but instead getting started on the gate that will permit access to the "interior" of the layout area.
My original intention was to simply build a lift out - but in the end we decided a hinged access gate made more sense. For one thing the problem with lift outs (as opposed to hinged access methods) are when you remove it you're standing there with a board in your hand - and you need to put it somewhere. It's also necessary to connect and reconnect the power to the track every time the liftout is removed and installed.
None of that is insurmountable, since the layout is designed to be operated "from the inside." meaning it would be a simple matter to get everybody in the layout area, put the lift out in place, and connect the wires, reversing the process at the conclusion of the op session.
But I tend to get a lot of non-railroad visitors - they will want to see the interior of the layout area, and will most certainly want to see a train run - meaning I needed a solution that would be a little less clumsy than a basic liftout would be in practice.
Hence, the swinging gate approach. And since this is such a critical element to the layout (the entire scheme hinges on it, pun intended) we decided to tackle it head on now....).
But keeping our priorities straight, we first broke for lunch.
After lunch we stopped by Lowe's and picked up an assortment of hinges, screws and the like and set to work.
Honestly, we probably spent more time noodling through how to do this than we actually spent cutting wood. There was even a point where we realized we were overthinking this thing and were in danger of an over engineered monster. Luckily we caught ourselves before we started down that path.
While we didn't finish the assembly or installation yesterday we did get the plywood bridge "surface" cut to fit, installed the "plate" that the hinges will ultimately connect to, and Stic routed a matching angled notch in the floating end of the bridge to support the bridge (and take pressure off the hinges). This will also ensure the track lines up properly.
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