Concept Bridge

     I  love to spend time drawing out thoughts about how something could work.  Most of the stuff I never actually build, but it's a lot of fun to think about.  In the past I have suggested a drawbridge, one that was large enough to walk through plus it would have to cut off the power on either side while the bridge was up. Of course I was thinking about the Mall layout.  The bridge would provide access to our control area within the layout.  The one in the drawing is 3 feet long and is open on the top to provide easy access to the track.  The bridge is wide enough for our double main line.   It has it own support legs that fit under the lip of the Mall platform.  They would be secured by screws to hold in place and used to align the bridge when lowered.

   Power would feed to a bridge support and be wired to a small metal bracket.  Another metal bracket on the lip of the bridge would make contact with it when the bridge was lowered and complete the circuit.
You would place a track insulator (plastic rail joiner) as far back on either side of the bridge as you wanted to control.   Maybe ten feet in each direction.  When you raised the bridge, the electrical contact would be broken and the power shut off to the control area. The hinges could be used to conduct power across the gap in the rails.   Or one nice piano hinge by itself and loop the connecting wires under the bridge.

 The fun of a concept drawing is that it lets you visualize your ideas without building anything and it helps you think of better ways to do something.  Plus in my case it provides lots of entertainment.  One of the nice features of our hobby is simply thinking about things that we might do some day.