Bridging the gaps

Building the Crawford’s module required overcoming two major construction issues to avoid head-banging duckunders. The biggest problem was the basement stairway, which comes down at a corner of the room, creating a 50" span to be bridged. On the other side of the basement, the doorway to the utility area had a span of 36". I’m not a fan of lift-out sections, and the height of the layout (approximately 50") made fold-up spans impractical.

The utility room doorway span was solved with help from a plan in the May 2014 Model Railroader for a fold-down bridge track that rode on a drawer slide, hinged on one end, and self-stored at the end of the layout structure.

The basement entrance, however, remained a problem. Many examples of swing gates were examined, but they were all rather short, at 24" to 36" in length. The basement corner span would have to be 50" long and contain two 45-degree turns to get around the corner. The answer I finally came up with was two swing gates that met in the middle. That’s easy to say, but the tracks had to line up reliably both horizontally and vertically.

To give the gates the required stability, each is mounted to a bracket attached to wall studs. They would mate to the railroad on cradles to assure exact matching height for roadbed and track. The swinging portions were made approximately 24" deep, each with two heavy-duty hinges. Where the two gates come together, bottom plates ride up onto each other, ensuring a tight fit. The gates were designed so that minor adjustments could be made after installation. Later an indicator light was added as a visual confirmation that power was passing through the swing sections.

Overcoming these two obstacles made Crawford’s possible and made getting into and out of the basement easy. Hardhats not needed! – John Ciesla

❺ Rejecting the idea of lift-out, swing-up, and duckunder spans, John bridged the four-foot entrance to the layout room with a pair of swing gates that meet in the middle.