Yesterday my Legacy Berkshire alerted me rather dramatically (thunk!/red short-circuit light!) that I had "geologic settling" on a portion of my highest level of track. A 3/16 inch sag had developed between the red arrows in photo one: the track there is supported by 8 inch high 2 x 4 wood columns every foot, each custom cut and shimmed so the track was level when I installed it six years ago. I had put about 3/8 to 1/2 inch of foam on top for sound/cushioning on several of the supports there (but luckily nowhere else) and it seems to have crumbled/compressed over time). Anyway, that spot is the most difficult to get to on the entire layout - under and up an access hole (I can actually put my head up into the cathedral if I want but mostly had to squat and work on the supports for what appear to be the mountaintop underneath the cathedral and that track section). The prospect of spending an hour or two crawling back and forth and squatting under there while I shimmed the four supports involved so the track was level again did not thrill me - and I wasn't sure it would be easy to adjust finely with shims. So I made four adjustable jack supports from plastic plumbing fixtures like that shown in Photo #2 and #3. They have roughly 3/4 inch of adjustable range and I can adjust the height exactly (one full rotation gives about 1/8 inch of up-down change). It took less than 30 minutes under there, cutting out the old supports and then positioning three of these and adjusting them until the track was level again.
This is the plumbing thing. I forgot what it is called but among all the threaded plastic plumbing fixtures I played with this had both the most screw range - nearly an inch, and was the only device that stayed loose all the way in and out (many other fixture screw until they are finger tight only half way down): about $6 each at Lowes hardware. I threw the rubber rings away and cut it in two to make two support jacks from each of a pair I bought.
I used Loctite epoxy putty to attach plastic to wood and made four of these. By turning the base this can be shortened by 3/4 inch in very fine increments.
