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My awesome idea

Started by sedfred, March 22, 2016, 01:56:11 PM

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sedfred

I have come up with an awesome way for people with smaller layouts with no staging or engine facilities to put locomotives on their layout with a minimum of actual handling. if you store them near the floor on a shelf, simply have some track running beside where the locos are stored, then if the layout doesn't take up the whole wall use the remaining space and build a wooden frame with a movable turntable at the bottom that can be moved up and down. have the track go to this turntable on the floor. then put a loco on the track and run it to the turntable. raise the turntable to track level on your layout and turn the turntable so the loco faces the layout, then turn on the power and move your loco from the turntable onto the layout, voila! then instead of picking up a locomotive and carrying it at a dangerous height you just pick it up and move it 2 feet, and the risk of dropping it is almost nonexistent

Trainman203

That is basically a vertical version of a transfer table, used at steam back shops  for decades.

on30gn15

Sort of like this concept?
QuoteWorld's biggest car delivery center
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April 4 - The two gleaming glass towers of Volkswagen's Autostadt, or car town, house technology which automatically moves cars from VW's Wolfsburg plant to the towers, to the customer center where they are collected by their owners. Joanna Partridge reports.
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When all esle fials, go run trains
Screw the Rivets, I'm building for Atmosphere!
later, Forrest

jonathan

I had a similar idea when I first started designing my layout.  It seemed so complicated that I abandoned the thought and searched for something else.  I found, with even a small amount of space, one could store or stage locomotives on the layout in engine houses.

This engine house sits on a shelf portion of the layout... only 9 inches wide:


The next two houses are on a part of the layout that is only 2 feet wide:



(Need to twist the smokebox front back in place)

For those with lots of room, there are staging tracks where whole trains can be standing by in another room.

Just a thought.

I've been away for a while dealing with an illness.  Trying to get back into time for trains.

Regards,

Jonthan


ebtnut

Jonathon:  Feel better real soon.  We miss your great work and commentary.

austrian

Jonathan: looks great and best wishes to you!

Thomas

J3a-614

Quote from: austrian on March 30, 2016, 01:11:13 AM
Jonathan: looks great and best wishes to you!

Thomas

I can't add a thing. . .

J3a-614

#8
One thing I haven't seen mentioned so far is the "cassette."  These can be made as long as can be handled, and in some versions are even available commercially, mostly in Great Britain.

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/2015/IMG_4267.JPG

http://forum.railroadforum.com/lofiversion/index.php?t12236.html

http://www.bandrmodelrailways.co.uk/Accessories.html

http://www.metalsmith.co.uk/fiddle_yard_cassettes.htm

Some aren't even made with "track" as such:

http://www.zen98812.zen.co.uk/cassettes.html

Someone used some sort of commercial channel for this variation:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevepurves/13938258780

Some construction comments:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/104826.aspx