Bridges between baseboards? Here are three components to span the gap.
Judging from your emails, quite a few modellers struggle with how to bridge track across gaps in layout baseboards — door’s are such a hindrance, aren’t they! 🙂
It seems simple but there’s more to it than you might think.
Luckily, experienced layout constructor Lance Mindheim has a solution which he’s graciously let me reproduce here. (Click on the photos to see larger versions).
Those of us who want a continuous run design around room typically have two options.
The issue is: how do you enter the room if you have a continuous run design?
A stairway — such as that into a baseement or perhaps loft — that drops you into the center of the layout room would be great, but my experience is that this is rare.
The more common choice, especially for spare rooms, is where you have a “dog bone style” layout with a lift out bridge on one side. The traditional dog bone is plagued with design flaws seen here:
- It requires that the main line pass through the scene twice which is unrealistic.
- It requires two, 180 degree turn back loops, again unrealistic.
- Finally, in most cases, the back of the loop is beyond comfortable reach in and viewing distance.
Axe that as an option. Duck under types, where the you have to clamber under the layout, look good on paper but become really old, really quickly, particularly as you age.
That leaves us with the lift out bridge. The layout runs all around a room, even across the doorway into the room. To allow access while still allowing a continuous run, a section of track lifts up and out. When in the room, it’s dropped back down, allowing the trains to run across it.
The Problems With Bridges
The problem with these bridges is that layouts and houses are typically made of wood. As they settle and they can expand and with this the relative position of the layout and bridge can move. The nature of track is such that if things are just a hair out of alignment, derailments occur.
What’s needed is a design for a bridge that is easy to construct AND easy to adjust.
Illustrated below is one way to skin the cat.
There are three components to the design:
- the bridge itself,
- an alignment saddle that holds it in place,
- and an electrical jumper wire that feeds power to the bridge track.
The saddle is a simple box made from 1×3 maple (a harder wood). T-nuts are inset in the bottom and the sides of the saddle and then 2″ carriage bolts are threaded into the t-nuts. A quick spin of the bolts allows infinite adjustment (vertically and horizontally) of the bridge that is seated in it.
Here’s the bridge seated in the saddle. I use a masonite pad under the track at the layout joint as this is more robust than cork roadbed. The re-railers are trimmed to fit. Note that the re-railers on the bridge extend out about 1/8″ and rest on the layout masonite pad when the bridge is in place. The box is a simple design of 1/2″ ply with 1/4″ lattice wood for the side rails.
To further minimize the chance of a train “picking the end of the rails” chamfer both sides of the track.
Removal of the bridge is a simple matter of unplugging the banana plugs and lifting it out.
Also keep in mind that, for most of us, the time spent working on the layout typically far exceeds the time we actually run trains. Factoring that in, the time we spend interacting with the bridge is limited. Just set it aside until you want to do some train running.
Words and pictures (c) Lance Mindheim.
> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.