Freight Depot Doors...

... In general, were hung on rollers to "slide" open like barn doors because of limited space on the platform and limited space in the depot itself.

Sure there were exceptions, but the wide, heavy doors would quickly sag on conventional hinges, too, and were much better supported from the rail at the top and bottom. It's not like railroads didn't already have a lot of experience and hardware for sliding doors...

Slide

I think this is the DPM kit or Woodland Scenic's? It looks like the office space is on the left at ground level. Windows give character to the building but don't really serve a purpose as any storage probably is going to be on pallets. And those will be shoved against the walls with a aisle down the center.

So have the door slide to the right. Since you are doing the inside, I would add a metal track on the floor against the right side wall and have the door mostly open.

Look at the office portion and it is at ground level. You are going to need to put a raised floor on the warehouse side. I would also add a wall to separate to 2 sections. If you don't want to make it full height make it a half wall.

Hope you will come back and show us how you finish it up.

Jack

Slide

Generally they slide on tracks inside the building.

And yes, the doors are not far enough back in the wall (baggage car doors operate the same way and generally suffer from the same problem.) They should be back at least the length of one brick.  The good news there is if you cut out the entire door, you can mount a partially open door behind the plastic wall and it will look to be about the right depth.

Thanks for the

Thanks for the suggestions. 

I put the wrong building picture up. The actual kit is the Dairy Distributor by WS but it is the same layout as the one pictured except it has a loading dock on the warehouse side.

The door in question is the bigger arched door on the warehouse side. I am not sure how an arched door would slide but I think that is how I am going to have to do it.

The loading dock interior kit by ITLA sits at the perfect height so that won't be a problem.

I'll try and post a picture as it nears completion.

An arched door WON'T slide.

An arched door WON'T slide. It would probably be split in two and open outward to each side.

Post the right picture and we can be more specific.

without seeing it, I'd guess the arched door would be for wagons or trucks.

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Due to the arch and the split down the middle, I do believe these doors open Inward.  This building would have been built pre-Forklift era.

Modern fire code say if the

Modern fire code say if the building occupancy is 50 or more, the doors MUST open out. Less, can go either way.

I've no idea when that took effect though.

Door

How do you know the door is arched?  If it slides all you know is the opening is arched.  The door behind it can be rectangular.

The door opening out would be a security risk, that means the hinges are on the exterior of the building, easy to pop the pins out of the hinges and pull the door off the building to get into it.

Personally I would say the door slides or opens out purely because if you use the detailed interior, the door opening in would conflict with the highly detailed interior you are building.

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The trim.

Arched

Because these doors have arched openings and arched trim they must open by swinging in or out.

Or not.

There's no reason why

a square door could not be hung inside on a rail behind the brick arch and still slide to the right.

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The doors of the DPM era likely predate the Modern fire code rules.

Large inward opening doors like this would have a hole in the dock behind both the door and where the door is secured when open, and a quarter inch L shaped rod used to close the door or secure it in the open position.

There's then of course the sliding doors, but those do not work when the distance is feet between each bay.  Those doors evolved to split doors that go up (with the middle coming in) to sliding doors that go up into the air space to rollo doors that leave into a 2'x2' canister.

Outward opening doors would be atrocious for people backing into them - not to say they weren't used.  I'm sure we could find prototypes for all said arrangements.

In general, the area behind a door is supposed to be kept free at all times.  An inward opening door enforces that rule.

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Of course.  But the DPM door in this case as a curved top arch.

Final word?

This should probably be the "final word" on the way the doors are MEANT to open, since this is the manufacturer's build of the model...

It's pretty clear the spacing to either side of the door is too narrow for it to slide, even if it were reasonable (and it's not really, due to the shape of the door). Also, the stacks of goods immediately in front of the door are a clear implication the door is unlikely to be able to swing outward...   so inward it is!

Here is a picture of the

Here is a picture of the building with the open door. It is not finished yet but I think you get the idea. The door I cut out is arched similar to the picture of the garage Dave showed.

Here is a stock photo showing the doors on the back of the building. The door on the front is the same.

Now that I look closer I would have to agree that the doors would open inward. I will see what I can do.

Thanks for all your help.

That structure brings back

That structure brings back memories. I recall the kit in 80s and had one.

I highly doubt the doors on

I highly doubt the doors on that fancy house with a 3 car garage open out! they are set too deep into their frame. I'd bet they are overhead doors with a very well done faux face. Yes if it was my building I would build a new rectangular door a little larger than the frame (including above the top of the arch) and have it slide to the side along the inside. If it was a full size building you would not be able to tell if the top was arched or not, open or closed. With the door open and the inside detail, no one will be looking at the small exposed portion of the open door anyhow. Or you could just run a piece of strip wood along the side of the frame to represent the end of fully open door, no one will be able to tell if the rest of the door is behind the wall or not.

Bzzzt! Nope, those doors do

Bzzzt!

Nope, those doors do NOT roll up. Look again, you can see the split odwn the middle of the door, and the door handles on either side of it.There's no sign of horizontal breaks, either. It's possible that they could rais in one piece...   but the handles are in the wrong place for that.

It's also far more likely to have the doors open outward. Why?   Because it would require 5-10 feet more length in the garage to be able to open the door inward (because CAR...) and room to maneuver PAST the door on the inside with the door open.

Garage doors

Actually they do.  If you look closely there are the horizontal breaks where there are door panels.  They were an example that the trim on the door doesn't necessarily indicate how the door opens.

Multiple and One Piece Overhead Doors

Actually, one can get a one piece overhead door.  The mechanism to operate it looks quite different.  There is a company, Craft Doors USA, that makes them (and probably other companies as well).  Here's one with but a single horizontal joint sitting on a pallet waiting for sale and installation.

And here's one with no joints at all:

At the cost of these doors, I don't think one would find them on a freight station though . . . go with the slider!

Frame

If you look at the frame the door sits in the door itself is recessed into the opening. This would make it likely that it is hinged on the inside and as such the doors would open into the structure not outward. 

A few observations 1) the

A few observations

1) the earlier garage doors were flip up it was only more recent that we got sectional roll up doors.

2) a door that swings out is almost always flush with the outer wall otherwise the hit the wall when opening which tends to limit the swing p, damage the door and damage the wall.  So a recessed door is either a slider a roll/flip up or a swing in.

Swing in Doors are preferred if you have  room inside for them as the are less subject to wind slamming them around and less subject to weather as well as easier to build and better sealing.  But because they take up room to swing them are less commonly in smaller buildings.

-Doug M

Sorry, but recessed doesn't mandate inward-opening....

If the pivot point is placed a couple inches in from the side of the door, and at the top and bottom, then the door can quite easily swing outward. This would also explain why the door appears to be "inset" along the sides, but not the top.

As for the door swinging shut in the wind, there are several ways to deal with this...  Power doors, of course, will be held open. Manual doors will likely have a "drop pin" on the inside of the door that will be used both in holding the door closed, and to keep them open.

I maintain that the position of the door handles on the 3 car garage argues against a roll up or lift door of any kind...   not just by their position, but also by their orientation. Lift door handles should be horizontal, not vertical, and mounted towards the bottom of the door.

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The more recessed the door is, the more the top of the curved door hits the  bottom of the curved arch the more the door opens.  As a result, the most you can open the door is to 75 or 80 degrees versus the full 90 degrees.  No matter what point the hinge point is located, the top of the curved door will hit the bottom of the arch if it swings out.  Simple geometric relationship between two arcs.

The trim details shows these doors as DPM has set them are swing in. The door is equally inset along the sides and the top..  There may be modern solutions to swing the door up even though it appears to be two piece, but for the time period expressed by DPM, they would be simple but large hinges.  There were other solutions in the time period, to include split bifold (with a horizontal split and the door going up, sliding, roll up, etc, but every indication of this door shows a door that is two pieces and the shape and fit of the door in the recessed arch would necessitate an inward opening door.  At a later date the doors could be rebuilt with the arch being a solid piece and the remaining door being rectangular, but as presented, that modification has not been made.

The doors on the modern 3 car garage can very easily be overhead doors because that technical solution is available - but in that case, the outward appearance of the door is a dress up and not reflective of door function.