Selected bar invisibility

[Reg Ludions]

Hello List

I'd like to notate some music in which small groups of bars are surrounded by
whitespace (or invisible bars). I'm after something notationally not that 
different to the score of Terry Riley's "In C": 
http://artsaha.analogartsensemble.net/Texts/InC.jpg.

I've taken the "staff-container.ly" snippet from the documentation as a starting
point (linked from the file "input/test/collated-files.html"), but soon come up
against problems. This perhaps isn't surprising given that the snippet warns:
"(Be careful if you use this; it has been done by splitting the grouping
Axis_group_engraver and creating functionality into separate contexts, but the
clefs and time signatures may not do what you would expect.)" - but I'd like to
know how tricky this might be to get around.

The first problem already exists in the example file referred to above, in that
all time signatures are printed too high against the staves. Other problems are
commented on in the example below, and include not being able to encourage 
other time
signatures to be invisible in the customary manner.

A further complication may be that I wish to combine use this approach in
writing percussion notation using the DrumStaff and DrumVoice contexts...

Any advise and help appreciated - is the below possible without too much
trouble, and would percussion notation make any easy workarounds unlikely?

Regards

Tom

% ****************************************************************
% ly "modern score" snippet from "Tips and tricks" file
% adapted from \sourcefilename "staff-container.ly"
% ****************************************************************
\version "2.13.31"
\score  {
     \relative c'' 
        <<
        \new StaffContainer {
            << \new Staff { 
                        \key g \major c4 c4 d f \bar "||"
                } >>
            \skip 1  % works fine
            << \new Staff { 
                        \time 3/4 e cis b       
                } >>    
                % TimeSignature override not working here 
        %   due to contexts, below?
                % also causes \skipped bar to be visible
                \once \override Staff.TimeSignature #'break-visibility = 
#all-invisible
                \time 4/4 % 4/4 here to maintain width of invisible bar
                \skip 1  
                << \new Staff {         
                        \time 7/8 c8 d2 e4  
                        % override not working due to contexts, below?
                        \once \override Staff.TimeSignature #'break-visibility 
                                = #end-of-line-invisible
                        \bar "||" \break 
                        \time 3/4 f4 a b % need to reset or hide bar nos
                } >> 
        }
    >>
    \layout {
        \context {
            \Score
            \accepts StaffContainer
            \denies Staff
        }
        \context {
            \type Engraver_group
            \consists Clef_engraver
            \consists Time_signature_engraver
            \consists Separating_line_group_engraver
            \consists "Axis_group_engraver"
            \accepts "Staff"
            
            \name StaffContainer
        }
        \context {
            \Staff
            \remove Axis_group_engraver
            \remove Separating_line_group_engraver
            \remove Clef_engraver
            \remove Time_signature_engraver
        }
        ragged-right=##t
    }
}
% END ****************************************************************