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In order for the elevator to function properly, I found it needed the following: • smooth corner guides for the elevator—I added smooth 1/8" acrylic sheeting over the guides where the roughness of the wooden elevator guides caused unwanted rocking of the moving elevator (figs. 2 and 3 and 5) • precise upper and lower stopping guides for the elevator so it's at the same heights as the upper and lower layout tracks when it stops (fig. 2) • capacitor start on the motor to get it started—luckily, this also came with the motor I settled on; some other motors that I tried failed because they had no capacitors • no more than 1/16-inch gap between layout rails and elevator rails when it comes to rest • power to the elevator train track rails from 24-gauge (stranded) dangling wires arranged so as to have no pulling effect on elevator motion • a rubber roller (which the motor runs) that is tight against the plywood wheel so that it can't slip (I installed a 1.5" bearing/wheel on the opposite side of the plywood wheel from the rubber roller—the two rollers balance each other; to adjust the tightness of the bearing against the wheel I used a ¼" eyebolt with two wing-nuts which allow precision adjustments of the bearing because the eyebolt holds tension against the bar that holds the bearing) (fig. 4) • a slight (one degree?) tilt to the whole 6'-tall elevator assembly so the elevator will favor the smoothest acrylic-covered guides, act consistently, not waver or swing, and always end up in the same spot, since the locos can't successfully negotiate the transition from elevator track to layout track—or vice versa—if the tracks aren't nicely lined up before throttle-up |
