Part of my railroad's route involves crossing the doorway to the room, on two levels, no less.  Since I am now old enough that I don't bend anymore, a duck-under is out of the question.  So, a lift or swinging bridge is in order.

I decided on a lift bridge, so that I'm not obstructing room space.   After quite a bit of cogitation, and an "ah-ha" moment when I was holding some aluminum extrusion in my hand, I came up with what turned out to be a successful two-level bridge.  The endeavor follows:

Basic benchwork in the layout room is done, and I was eager to get started on subroadbed, including my first shot at spline construction (see http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/4683   ).  But I had to get the backdrop out of the way.  1/8" masonite curves well down to about 18 inch radius.  Below that, I was too chicken to find out with it dry.  But I did do a 10 inch radius corner after soaking the back at the curved portion with water (OK water and windex:  it was in the spray bottle already).  It was an easy one-man operation.  I supporte

At last, the bedroom becomes the train room.  (The last "room" I had for trains was a 6'x10' space in the corner of my folks garage 50 years ago).  So, I'm going to document bits and pieces of my progress in constructing layout #7, in a nice, comfortable conditioned 10' x 12' room.  More entries follow this intro.

I've spent considerable time digesting the advice and information given, in response to my blog inputs, and on the forum blogs and discussions.  Thanks one and all, very much, especially Byron:  I've tried to remove the extra nine buckets full from my one bucket!

First post of layout file.  This may be a chainsaw layout, but it may last 20 years.

The helix is based on an experiment in my garage using cookie-cutter plywood.  I built the test with 21 inch radius and 3%:  it worked for a 4 ft. train with an RSD-5.

Taken by Warren Smith from about 900 ft. away, before BNSF daylighted the tunnel and installed triple track.

This photo is what my office co-workers see by my office door.  They can't miss it:  the loco is 24 inches tall, and the headlight is about chin level.

I have 15 old freight cars, along with a batch of new trucks and couplers, that I had intended to work on during the super bowl, but the game was too exciting.  So there sits some of my oldest equipment (up to 50 years old):  Athearn, Model Die Casting, Ulrich, and even a Varney.  Wait to next weekend!

So, having read about every discussion on the various threads on layout planning, and some layout planning publications, and having had my thinking stretched hither and yon, I am going to try to verbalize where I'm at presently.

Physical givens: