A big project? Work step by step

The bigger projects in life can seem overwhelming, even if you'd done something similar before.  The only way to get something big done is to get started with something small.  

This lift bridge is indeed a big project.  Recently, hobby time has been dedicated to moving forward by making progress as often as feasible on the smaller steps to bring it to completion.  These steps take time.  Adding a lift out bridge would be enough to push the envelope, but making it a mechanized vertical lift bridge is pushing the limits beyond anything I have tried to date on this railroad.   We are trading longer, more intricate work for a more operable and less cumbersome feature.  

First, that involves fortifying the edges of the bridge and the layout that will support it.  I removed track for the new switch in the background as seen above, and adding PC board strips to the edge allows a surface to which we can solder the rail ends directly.  This will be an important effort to strengthen the gap areas.  Construction adhesive was used here for a tough and rock-solid cure.

You can see here how this area is right over the location of the dispatcher, and the management desk for sessions.  Someone sits in this spot below.  Therefore the idea to have a longer permanent track extend out to meet the bridge does not work.  The bridge would need to include the long curved approach, and the ladder tracks.  

With the edges in place, it was time to lay track and cut in the new switch for the Teddes Street Lead.  Gapping rails on a curve is, frankly, not a good idea in model railroading.  And yet there is no option here: if this bridge is going to work, a gap must be on this odd angle, and through a curve.  Yikes!  

Cutting in a switch is something we have done before, but building track over a gap to a moveable bridge is not.  Essentially, this is a mitre rail sort of connection, with guard rails installed as well to help guide wheelsets over a curved, gapped rail.  First, though, those great PC boards can be soldered to the rail directly.  Plastic ties are removed as needed, joints made with the switch, and now the whole assembly is tough.  The photo above shows the area just before the rails were cut.  

You can also see the bracing designed by Jim Harr that supports the masonite side girders on the bridge.  The curve required a series of small wooden angle glued in place.  The straight areas, seen below, allowed longer runs of 1"x2" cut at a 45-degree angle.  Adding the girders really stiffened up the bridge, as was intended.  

While the track on the curve cured, it was time to move to lay down the ladder tracks for Peat Street Yard.  I used a compound ladder to help maximize storage track length.  This was glued in place.  Once cured, the rest of the track was added, allowing rail to be continuous from the Island all the way to the bumpers in Peat Street Yard.  

Now, to run power, and to finalize the lift mechanism!  Those projects too will take some time, even to the point where we have to cancel the May operations on the OC.  And I never like to miss an operating session.  

This illustrates a larger point, though.  This wild idea of Jack's is the right solution to the new storage yard.  I am confident it will work out for the long term improvement in the operations.  And, it is a fact that big opportunities require big projects to be completed.  The way we get there is by handling a steady stream of smaller steps to keep the project moving.