First full use of Elevator a Success

After finishing the lifting brackets earlier in the week, I managed to finish fabricating the jumper track from the garage to the stairwell.  Although today was a warm 64 degree day, a cold front is coming through and highs in the fourties are predicted for the remainder. It is only a matter of time before a good hard freeze comes through overnight and I still have a locomotive outside.  With that in mind, it is time to get the Crab down into the basement!

Using a temporary jumper from the trailer to the garage stand, I moved the engine out of the trailer, and alos push the trailer to the back of the driveway. Positioning the stand at the doorway, I locked the new jump track in place.

The Crab on the low garage stand

Things lined up well, the loco rolled onto the basement stand without any problems.

Going Down!

After a gentle 9 minute ride down, we were in the basement!  Success!

 Some fine-tuning of the chain guide system is still needed; this one slipped and started wrapping around the sprocket between the chain before the motor stalled. This time the motor controller did not register a fault and kept trying to restart before I could hit the stop button. After I unwound the guide from the sprocket it behaved the rest of the time, although a couple others 'popped' and 'banged' as the links started to snag them before sliding past.