QUOTE (Gwent rail @ 29 Aug 2006, 16:58)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>How have you attached the folding part to the 1ft section TD ?
Yes, I know with a bracket arrangement, but could you give some detail and tell us how sucessful it's been. I'm sure there will be others, starting off, that will find the idea useful. Perhaps a few positives and negatives of this system would be good. Thanks in anticipation.
Basically the two boards are hinged together with the hinges mounted about 3/4" above the surface of the boards. I used the expensive solid brass hinges for minimal play (by that I mean the kind that are made from a solid piece of brass and not the bent sheet kind). By mounting them above surface level, the boards pull apart as the main board is folded up, so even the track which is on cork and therefore about 1/4" above the surface also pulls apart. I made the board framing very sturdy and then added 1x6 planks on the hinged faces with them sticking up about about 3/4" for the hinges to mount on top of. I guess a diagram would make it much clearer!
Notches were then cut in the protruding planks to allow track to be laid across the join, once it was solidly fixed in place I used a dremel to cut the track.
So far it is working great, I haven't wired up the track yet but I've had no trouble with various pieces of rolling stock crossing the join.
I can store trains in the fixed section and because my backscene on the folding section is mounted about 6" from the join and is about 1' tall, it forms a nice dust cover over the trains when the layout is folded away!
The only negative I can think of with this arrangement is that the staging area is kinda hard to reach so I made an 18" access hole in the middle of the main section so I can get to it.
The key to its success I think was very careful planning of the woodwork before I started construction.
