Large Scale Central

Earthquake - To Couple or Uncouple, That is the Question

General Discussion
#1

I live in the Bay Area of California and obviously experience the occasional severe earthquake. The most recent was in August of 2014 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_South_Napa_earthquake - and did not suffer any damage. I had just put up the shelves but did not have anything on them.

I now store my rolling stock on those wall mounted shelves with a bungee cord stretched along about mid-way on the outside of the shelving. The cars are not individually secured. The shelves do not have track, just dado cuts that the wheels sit in.

One part of my brain says keep them coupled and that would offer a bit of a monolithic, but flexible, connection and tend to offer the best chance of survival. However if one makes it over the edge it could take others with it.

Another part of my brains thinks that if they are separate then they can rock and roll as required and perhaps if one falls it won’t take the others on the journey to the floor.

Do you think it would be better to couple all of them together or to keep them a bit apart and uncoupled?

Thanks for your thoughts and perhaps experiences.

#2

Thinking like a sailor who has to secure for sea, I’d recommend a small lip along the length of each shelf and each end. Is doesn’t have to be much, a quarter inch, or perhaps 3/8 inch would do it. A half inch would be overkill. That should be enough for anything but a 1906 style quake. Get some quarter round moulding and use a brad gun, you’ll be done in no time.

#3

If your really concerned about tieing the cars down to the shelf, but making then readily available to run, here is my solution.

Mark the shelf under one axel of each car. Drill a 3/8" hole thru the board directly under the axel location. Push the clip up under the car, turn 90 deg. to hook the axel and release. Reverse to release.

“THE SHELF HOOK”

You’ll have to experiment on the size to work with your shelf thickness, and the spring of the wire. Should work!

#4

Now that’s elegant!

#5

Uncoupled. Coupled, one goes they all go.

Greg

#6

Super magnets, close not touching. Bottom of truck above metal block. Roll away to lift …

Uncoupled, I battle winds, I’ve seen the line formation swan dive. Trust me, unlike falling dominoes, you won’t smile.

John

#7

Thanks for the clever ideas. I’m leaning towards something simple since the shelves are spaced just high enough to hold my tallest car, a caboose, so there is not a lot of room for my fat fingers to secure each car.

My current leading favorite is a curtain of shade cloth held in place with more bungees. That, and the existing horizontal bungees should keep things as snug as the proverbial bug in a rug. Also, I intend to not couple them together.

Thanks again.