Large Scale Central

Remote Controlled Brick Wall Door?

Problem Solving
#1

The outside layout is accessed from the crawl space through a wall I cut through the inner cinder block and then the outer brick wall.

The opening is along the mortar line and is 4 bricks high by 1 brick wide.

For years I have plugged the hole with a wood block cut to fit the hole.

I have doors to a screen porch I pull up with cords and pulleys to allow entry and exit of trains but I have not figured an easy way to open the wall door because I need to open it from the outside when the trains and I are on the inside.

It’s no problem if I want to run trains outside - I just manually open & close the door.

The problem is when I am inside doing some switching & need the door open because the freight yard is too short so I need to run something outside into the screened porch. I can see what I am doing via CCTV.

It seems I either need a pulley system through the brick wall or some sort of electric door.

I have a Jeep electric window motor that may have possibilities.

Has anyone built anything like this?

Thanks,

Jerry

PS I’m writing this at the hospital while my wife is in surgery. Her broken leg has been giving me a lot of time to post about stuff I’ve been procrastinating about for years.

#2

Some folks will do anything to get time to catch up on projects… :slight_smile:

Give our best to your lovely bride.

Can you provide pics of the problem area. That will help.

#3

Steve Featherkile said:

Can you provide pics of the problem area. That will help.

I can but so far I have not had much luck with posting photos. Jerry

#4

Hi Steve,

Marilyn said she does not feel very lovely in her hospital gown but she appreciates your thoughtfulness.

Thanks,

Jerry

#5

These are photos inside the crawl space showing the hole in the cinder block. The arrows happen to be the Rack Rail track going from the outside yard to the main crawl space layout. I never did get this working the way I wanted.

I’ll try to get a photo of the outside brick wall but things have been delayed as they have kept Marilyn in the Hospital longer than anticipated.

Jerry

#6

Jerry,

You were told before that you can’t just post pictures from YOUR computer. They must be hosted on line by someone like Photobucket.

#7

I thought that was what freight shed was for. I uploaded the photos to freight shed and then copied and pasted them. It seemed to work and then they were lost.

I tried it from an iPad, from a MacBook Pro and even from Windows 8.

OK This time I pasted the URLs.

What am I missing?

Jerry

#8

If they are in your freight shed then you are missing the rest of the url (location). All you copied and pasted was the file name, not it’s location.

As I was posting this, you seem to have gotten it. Congrats.

#9

“webkit-fake-url://3E38B7FE-5DAF-41EC-981A-8D0BB5F272DF/Rack1 dot jpg” alt=“Rack dot .jpg”

“webkit-fake-url://4DA380C1-E4E2-43F9-9F39-63512DAECDB8/Rack2 dot jpg” alt=“Rack2 dot jpg”

I don’t know where the code img src and fake URL comes from.

When I originally tried pasting the link it did not work so I tried pasting the image which seemed to work sometimes.

Jerry

#10

Jerry

Your window motor has promise but you would need a cut switch when the door has reached the top and the same as well at the bottom. A table saw will make 1/8" rabbets O/C of any dimensional lumber for a jamb/track/guide and luan(ply), coroplastic, acrylic, Steel(if you wish) are all materials of choice that come to mind in that thickness.

#11

Hi David,

I’m back at the hospital today but I may be able to get some photos tonight.

A thought I had was to use an Aristo tunnel entrance for outside trim with spacers to move it out far enough from the brick wall to enable me to be able to slide a guillotine type of sliding door that lifts up to open up and close off the crawl space from outside (tight enough to keep critters like snakes outside).

I would have to check the Jeep window opener to see if it has some sort of cut-off or I might need electric switches both for power and travel limits.

That’s just one idea that occurred to me when I had to have my son replace the motor in the Jeep (only the complete assembly could be ordered).

I’ve been thinking about how to do this for at least 10 years now.

Jerry

#12

Outside wall with hole blocked:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/sporch-c1.jpg)

Outside wall with hole open:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/sporch-o1.jpg)

Outside wall with Aristo Double Portal (I may have a single portal somewhere):

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/sporch-p1.jpg)

Sliding guillotine type door entering garage:

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/window1-1.jpg)

View of screened porch from side (center left):

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/olayout-w1.jpg)

Jerry

PS Marilyn is now home from the hospital and all is well.

#13

The simplest way would be to put a hinge (piano or two hinges) across the top of the wood “door” and screw it to the brick above.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jerry_mccolgan/deck/sporch-c1.jpg)

Then, with an eye hook at the bottom, connect the eye to a cord (to pivot the bottom up), run the cord through pulleys and somehow run it through the brick & cinder block into the crawl space where additional pulleys would guide the cord to the siding control station.

That could work but it would involve multiple pulleys and it would be difficult to precisely align the cord so it did not fray on the brick and or cinder block it would be passing through (or have some sort of sleeve to protect it).

An electric door opener would seem to be a better option (combined with a CCTV to monitor its operation).

Jerry

#14

Maybe you could get a used garage door opener, limit it’s travel and connect it to the door.

Here’s a link to all the apps for an iPad to control the garage door opener too.

http://appfinder.lisisoft.com/ipad-iphone-apps/garage-door-remote-control.html

Greg

#15

Greg Elmassian said:

Maybe you could get a used garage door opener, limit it’s travel and connect it to the door.

Greg

Attention Ladies and Gentlemen!

Here we have an “engineer” recommending a GARAGE DOOR OPENER to raise a 10 ounce door!!!

Does anyone wonder why I would FIRE HIM if he worked for me and gave me such a recommendation?

Jerry

#16

I worked quite a bit with pneumatics in the past…You could use one cylinder to operate a slide door from either side. An added advantage is the air-supply could be used to operate track turnouts as well! You do need an air reservoir, but a 10 gallon compressor tank could be “charged” once a week and probably last 100’s of cycles.

http://www.clippard.com/

#17

Hi Mark,

That is an interesting approach. I have such a tank & an air compressor is in the next room (garage).

I know little about pneumatics but perhaps it could raise the door and when the air was released the door would drop.

Perhaps we can discuss it by PM or phone.

Thanks for the idea.

Jerry

#18

Sure thing Jerry, pneumatics are easy and darn near fool-proof…I know as I am the fool they’re worried about!

#19

Going through this post I noticed the mention of trying to keep snakes out.

When i was working at a hospital at an army camp, we had a Tiger snake suddenly appear inside the hospital. It came in through the automatic opening doors.

Not having a shovel to dispatch the reptile I called our security who sent a Professor who was a visitor from the reptile part of a Zoo. He had permission to be in the area looking for any new species of wild life on our firing range.

He removed the snake and told me that if you measure up about 3 inches from the tip of the tail, that is the diameter size hole that a snake can crawl through!

I make my doors a contact fit to avoid any chance of an unwelcome visitor.

Andrew
Sandbar & Mudcrab Railway