Mianne Lift Bridge Improvement

Now THAT'S using the ol' noggin!  

Keep it railroad prototypical, put in a tell-tale.  Might also make it a designated hardhat area.

Well, I used it once too often on those beams, that's the reason for the "upgrade"!

I think I'll dispense with the hardhat, this seemed to be a better solution.

That is a great thing John. I speak from experience, its not pleasant hitting your head on any sort of beam. In my twenties, my head connected with one when I was trying to straighten back up. Needless to say one of my coworkers said the beam was bent now. Try not to break the lift bridge like my head did to that beam.

I hope the plywood on top will keep the beam from flexing too much and breaking.

Good move. 

Good idea John. Having crawled around in mechanical rooms for many years you quickly find the head bangers. Usually someone found them first and put an old rag or something on the offending pipe or valve handle.

Bob

gunrunnerjohn posted:

My new layout will have the Mianne lift-bridge, and it'll make access to the center of the layout much easier, especially as flexibility starts to wane in my later years.  However, I have identified an issue with the bridge, specifically the hazard to my head!  If you're under the bridge and misjudge the height as you duck under, you can whack your head on the I-beams.  The edges are actually very sharp and square, and I have a couple of cuts on my noggin to prove it.  I considered rounding the edges, but that would only be a partial solution, so I dropped into my local Lowe's store and picked up some 1/2" split pipe insulation.  A perfect fit, and a nice padded place for my head to land on, no more cuts!

If you have the Mianne lift-bridge, I recommend this solution, it works!

I was going to suggest this to you as I too had a couple good cuts to my head. Only thing was it wasn't till the wife hit her head I did anything. DOUBLE OUCH! form her and the lift!

GRJ,

What is the clearance from I-beam to the floor?

I’m short and may be able to walk under if I wear thin Sox.

It's 5' 1 1/2" to the beam from the floor.  I'm not tall, but I'm a bit taller than that!

CurtisH posted:

I was going to suggest this to you as I too had a couple good cuts to my head. Only thing was it wasn't till the wife hit her head I did anything. DOUBLE OUCH! form her and the lift!

My wife can just talk under it, so she didn't notice the problem!

I've used that same insulation foam padding on joists in my attics for a number of years. Saved my head many a time!

It must be a great idea John, I did it to all my exposed edges under my 42” high layout, front edges, all around my five hatches. Every now and then I “discover” bare wood- yet to be covered with foam. Ouch!  😂👍😊

Wally

Besides your great idea of the insulating padding, you might consider the addition of a magnetic proximity switch, such that when the lift bridge is open, you can have some flashing warning lights activated by the switch to call your attention to the "low bridge clearance".

gunrunnerjohn posted:

It's 5' 1 1/2" to the beam from the floor.  I'm not tall, but I'm a bit taller than that!

CurtisH posted:

I was going to suggest this to you as I too had a couple good cuts to my head. Only thing was it wasn't till the wife hit her head I did anything. DOUBLE OUCH! form her and the lift!

My wife can just talk under it, so she didn't notice the problem!

Too low for a guy 6'3" like me... GRJ, you just saved me a bunch of money and disappointment, as I will eliminate the Mianne  Lift Bridge from my access plan... Back to the drawing board.. (Which is nothing new.. lol)

It doesn’t help to be missing the pre-collision warning system also called hair!  Whacked my head on numerous objects since going bald!

Larry

SantaFeJim posted:

GRJ,

What is the clearance from I-beam to the floor?

I’m short and may be able to walk under if I wear thin Sox.

 

 

I actually depends on your table height. If you are at 32" then it will not go up as high as if you were at 42". This is simply because the height dictates how high due to leg length minus overlap.

Woodson posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

It's 5' 1 1/2" to the beam from the floor.  I'm not tall, but I'm a bit taller than that!

CurtisH posted:

I was going to suggest this to you as I too had a couple good cuts to my head. Only thing was it wasn't till the wife hit her head I did anything. DOUBLE OUCH! form her and the lift!

My wife can just talk under it, so she didn't notice the problem!

Too low for a guy 6'3" like me... GRJ, you just saved me a bunch of money and disappointment, as I will eliminate the Mianne  Lift Bridge from my access plan... Back to the drawing board.. (Which is nothing new.. lol)

See my note on table height!!! This lift is great trust me. I am 6' and just walk under bending my head with table height of 37".

John - I think OSHA mandates that the foam be wrapped in reflective yellow tape - barber pole style - with an appropriate warning sign !   

John:  Since I am 6'8" tall I can tell you that solution has been around me for years. Glad you thought of it for your headache!

I've used the pipe insulators on the bottom of my 2x4 framework in strategic locations where my head tends to come up too soon.

Works pretty well, but doesn't lessen my sense of being stupid every time my head hits.

Alan

good idea John that is using your noggin [pun intended]   but the real cure would be to have a varied height meaning a maximum of 7 feet from floor to underside of the beam you keep hitting your head on.  a metal channel with wheels like a garage door would work one just has to get creative and build it. think on it as the person that made a lift bridge that went up 6 feet in air for the misty mountian railroad layout and it worked.  just saying is all.

I have that bridge as well and I really like it.  The mod I made was to put toggle switches on each side of the bridge permitting me to lower / raise it from inside or out.  With 3 levels, the hand held controller did not cut it.  Unfortunately my basement ceiling is relatively low so the 4th level will not utilize the bridge. My only issue was having 19 track junctions that needed to be lined up to the stationary part of the layout.

John 

Great idea ! you should have dug out the basement floor a bit right under the walk through. Then you wouldn't need the noggin protectors. LOL 

Alex

winrose46 posted:

I have that bridge as well and I really like it.  The mod I made was to put toggle switches on each side of the bridge permitting me to lower / raise it from inside or out.  With 3 levels, the hand held controller did not cut it.  Unfortunately my basement ceiling is relatively low so the 4th level will not utilize the bridge. My only issue was having 19 track junctions that needed to be lined up to the stationary part of the layout.

My next mod is dual switches.  I'm going to do it with relays so I can have a positive interlock in case some fool tries to go up when I'm going down.  In that case, you'd be shorting the 110V, not a good thing!  I need them as my lift-gate is four feet wide, my arms aren't that long.

Alex M posted:

John 

Great idea ! you should have dug out the basement floor a bit right under the walk through. Then you wouldn't need the noggin protectors. LOL 

Alex

 Uhh... NO WAY!  That sounds like a lot of work!

winrose46 posted:

I have that bridge as well and I really like it.  The mod I made was to put toggle switches on each side of the bridge permitting me to lower / raise it from inside or out.  With 3 levels, the hand held controller did not cut it.  Unfortunately my basement ceiling is relatively low so the 4th level will not utilize the bridge. My only issue was having 19 track junctions that needed to be lined up to the stationary part of the layout.

Winrose ... do you have pix and an informal schematic of your liftgate?  My liftgate has been in place for a year or so and I'm ready to wire switches on both sides.

Thanks.

rthomps posted:

winrose46 posted:

I have that bridge as well and I really like it.  The mod I made was to put toggle switches on each side of the bridge permitting me to lower / raise it from inside or out.  With 3 levels, the hand held controller did not cut it.  Unfortunately my basement ceiling is relatively low so the 4th level will not utilize the bridge. My only issue was having 19 track junctions that needed to be lined up to the stationary part of the layout.

Winrose ... do you have pix and an informal schematic of your liftgate?  My liftgate has been in place for a year or so and I'm ready to wire switches on both sides.

Thanks.

RT, squeezing in some layout construction time among his world travels! Go man go!

Speaking from experience, John, I can assure you this will be less of a problem in the future, since bending & crawling will cease to be viable options as you age.

Before you get too far, you may want to consider a bascule bridge, or a center span swing bridge, with the pivot on one shore (for which there are prototypes)  Then you won't be rebuilding in ## years.

winrose46 posted:

I have that bridge as well and I really like it.  The mod I made was to put toggle switches on each side of the bridge permitting me to lower / raise it from inside or out.  With 3 levels, the hand held controller did not cut it.  Unfortunately my basement ceiling is relatively low so the 4th level will not utilize the bridge. My only issue was having 19 track junctions that needed to be lined up to the stationary part of the layout.

How do you like it up exactly with each of the three levels?

We used pipe insulation for babyproofing our tables/corners, etc. when my daughter was born. A much cheaper solution to what is marketed for this purpose to new parents and just as effective. It definitely works minimizing bumps and bruises, and looks like I'll be able to re-purpose it when I design my layout.

I was going to cut a hose to slip over these, but then I spotted this in the plumbing section and figured they already did the cutting for me!

I did not think of two people operating the switch (one on each side).  I am not sure how likely that would occur in my environment. I have the power off on the tracks when I put it up and the switches are convenient to me; however, I am not sure someone else would operate a switch because mine are 37 " apart and I should be able to see someone else trying to move the bridge.

Regarding three levels on the bridge, I really have 4 in a sense with my staging track (Ross 4 ways at both ends of the yard) and an incline going up to the 2nd level over the bridge.  I was not thinking about it when a support for the transition track ended up over the outside main on the 1st level and I fortunately determined (before a costly error)  that the GG1 pans would hit the horizonal support which required a bit of rework in a difficult to access area ugh!  Even though I used 3/8 " threaded steel rods and nuts for the supports, I had more difficulty connecting the tracks with the bridge the higher I went.  Even with bracing, the path of the bridge up and down is not as steady as I would have liked and I have had to re-install track at least 5 of my 19 connections.  What made it even worse is that it is on a curved section of my layout and not one section on the bridge is straight.  The bright spot in this effort is that I used 10 " between levels  and I purchased a right angle power drill for all the tie screws. 

One word of caution for those desiring a non-standard  Mianne height bridge is -  if the bridge is shipped via multiple shipments (1st shipment had some destructive handling) and then replacement legs ended up being for the standard height.  The basic issue is that I built my first level before I had all the bridge components and I had to jury rig the bridge because the left side opening did not quite mesh with the right side and that 1/4 inch (my fault) caused multiple issues on the curved transition track going from the bridge to the platform.

Photo that includes the 2nd level of the bridge may be found with this link 2nd level construction with bridge in foreground 

Short video of 4 trains coming off the bridge on the 3rd level. Bridge is in the foreground

It's amazing how smart we get when a part of our body encounters an immovable object.....LOL

A perfect solution John.  Not sure why I didn't think of it the other day.  I did something similar with pipe insulation on a marble top coffee table when my kids were toddlers.

Dan Padova posted:

It's amazing how smart we get when a part of our body encounters an immovable object.....LOL

"I'm tryin' to think, but it hurts.  Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck, nyuck"!!!

The school of hard knocks - that's pretty much my edumication, too!  LOL!!!