After reading Bob Wheelers "Piedmont Division Cartridge Loading System" in Southeastern Region NMRA Vol. 50 I knew that was what I wanted. The biggest change was I used pegs mounted into holes in the wall (and studs). But how to support the 42 inch long trays? Finally i decided on a removable bracket, mounted on the door frame. Good thing I had just finished talking to my brother about how he hung his mail box using a French Cleat. A French Cleat is made by cutting a piece of wood at a 45 degree angle and mounting one piece on the wall with the angle out. When the other piece is set on top of the one screwed to the wall, it slides in behind it, locking it there.
After reading Bob Wheelers "Piedmont Division Cartridge Loading System" in Southeastern Region NMRA Vol. 50 I knew that was what I wanted. The biggest change was I used pegs mounted into holes in the wall (and studs). But how to support the 42 inch long trays? Finally i decided on a removable bracket, mounted on the door frame. Good thing I had just finished talking to my brother about how he hung his mail box using a French Cleat. A French Cleat is made by cutting a piece of wood at a 45 degree angle and mounting one piece on the wall with the angle out. When the other piece is set on top of the one screwed to the wall, it slides in behind it, locking it there.
This is the removable part of the tray support. Circled in red is the bottom support. The blue circled part is to hold the tray from sliding off the support. The green circled part is the one half of the French Cleat.
The picture above shows the support mounted to the door frame. Again the blue circled part holds the tray from sliding off the support, the red circled part is to keep the support straight, working along with the support sides that overlap the sides of the top and bottom of the cleat. The green slash indicates the slope of the French Cleat.
Below the picture shows three trays, pegs for two more and the bottom of the cleat circled in green.
The next picture shows a tray being loaded into place and the guide pin.
The last picture shows the rolling stock being unloaded.
The trays are made with a slotted board, sided with hardboard and a back stop at one end. The stop also has a stationary coupler to hold the rolling stock in place. My forty two inch trays hold six to seven pieces of rolling stock.