Can't help myself

A drawbridge so you can get your car in!

A few questions

Is it to be permanent or moveable? 

     - I'm assuming moveable, because otherwise its just a place for more benchwork.

If moveable, is it because a car needs to use the space, too? 

   - You could build a series of sections (modules) and drop legs to fill the space, or perhaps mount shelf rails on the inside of the garage door itself, pop in the brackets when the door is down, and place the sections on the brackets.  If you mount these directly to the door, you might want a "lock-out" of sorts so the door can't be opened with the layout attached!

Being a SPF

Being a SPF (Slobbering Pennsy Fan) I would use something like this...

It could be made very thin with the river "base" being just wide enough for the piers (if you ignor the draw span). It would certainly be long enough. You could make either the entire 11 feet removable or just a section of it removable.

George

A friend of mine used a piece

A friend of mine used a piece of extruded aluminum channel to span about an eight foot gap from his staging yard to the first town across the aisle at the entrance to his layout room.  He installed it with the legs of the channel pointing up to act as guards for the passing train.  Brackets on either side of the aisle made it very easy to remove and replace the bridge, and when it was not in use it could be easily stored out of the way under the layout.  The extrusion made it very light weight and reasonably easy for one person to handle.

If I recall correctly, he installed a piece of plywood and road bed in the channel to make track installation easier.

Alan

Garage bridge

Eleven feet is quite a span for a liftout bridge to maintain alignment and avoid derailing.  I built one 4' across a doorway using two 2 x 4's on edge with my subroadbed plywood screwed to them.  The 2 x 4's slid into galvanized brackets sold at Home Depot for mounting rails for fencing.  I can make any last minute adjustment in alignment by slightly bending the brackets in or out a little or using shims underneath the 2 x 4.  I have a double mainline going over my bridge and it works fine.  For your span you may have to make it in two or three sections with intermediate supports.  All this would multiply alignment issues and wiring.  A single metal channel may work better but the weight and problems of moving it into and out of position might be too much.  Let us know what you came up with and decide to use.

Why not a module or two

Have you considered a module or two that can fill the space - if your floor is reasonably true these can be on castors for ease of moving them out the way.

Or could be hinged at the side and then fold out with aid of castor(s) to meet in the middle - this like all suggestions would need some sort of locking mechanism in order to make it firstly secure but also to aid alignment as well.

The side benefit of the module solution is greater opportunity for scenery as well

Got it!

Also,

I don't plan on the connecting shelf spanning the door to be very large. In other words maybe 6" wide x 8-12" tall(eventual backdrop).

  There are 4 vertical(hollow aluminum) supports that will be used to attach this "bridge" if you will...That's where I need ideas on how to connect something to hold the trackage up.

Thanks,

  Daniel

Oh Gee, a Bridge.... YAWN

I see here lots of suggestions for lift-out bridges and modules.

Yawn.

*Everybody* models lift-out bridges and modules.

What can I say. You seen one, you've pretty much seen 'em all.

Now, if you ask me, what you *REALLY* need is a catapult.

Or, you know, if you're doing a logging railroad, a Trebu-Shay

Nothing moves fast freight quite like a siege engine.

Of course you could always just go with a basic sling shot, but IMO, you might have some issues with alignment. Though I'll bet you could get it dialed-in after just a few locos..probably sooner if you use brass...

John

How consistent is the garage door closing?

If the door is off 1/8 of an inch as it opens and closes, that is not a problem for a garage door.  n the other hand 1/8 of an inch is almost a scale foot in ho, closer to 2 feet in N.If your door doesn't close to precisely the same spot every time, you will have problems with track mounted to the door.

Garage door bridge

And if you make a section permanently attached to the garage door with a short removable section at each end?. Jose.

Spanning a Garage door

A friend of mine was faced with this problem and his solution was to build the layout high enough so that he could drive under the layout and to build a false floor  around the layout, leaving the floor area where the car is parked at the original level.