Part of my vision is that an operating session starts with the engines shut in the engine house. The first thing the crews must do is open the doors and bring their engines out; and the last thing they do when retiring is to close the doors behind them.
Now, I could just make the doors work, and the crew then has to reach into the scene to open or close them. However, that is a recipe for broken doors. So, a mechanism will be wanted underneath the layout, and so, it’s time to start thinking about it now.
My first thought was to have the doors spin on an axle, but either that axle is going to have to come up through the hinges of the doors, or there will be a slot in the ground so the axle can connect somewhere along the door. Either way, the appearance of the door won’t be as good as if the mechanism were absent.
Then I thought of using a magnet to tie each door to its mechanism. This has the benefit of making the doors almost move by magic. There is no obvious mechanism above the layout to move the doors, and the hinges can be model-fine. As a bonus, I could share the engine house with Pembroke 87.1 by duplicating the mechanism on the other layout.
What do you think? Has anyone tried this before?
Pembroke:87 