I bought this. It is 4x4 and will hold 250lbs. For $128 shipped, I couldn't see a cheaper design that woudn't take more time and effort, that I was willing to put in to step 1. It is going to go in the spare room/office, or another similar space in the house. I will most likely spray the ceiling bracket white, although, I doubt it will blend in . This is what I am planning. Please critique. The layout will be 4x8ish. It will be along a wall. I know this isn't ideal (to put it mildly), but it is the space allowed. I will make the cables detatchable. This will allow me to move it onto the floor, or position it, in a way that allows me to do far side scenery work. I am going to make the base a box about 6" deep. It will enclose the ugly black tray (or maybe even replace it, depending on weight and matrials (I'm not concerned with the weight limit, but my ability to manipulate it. I will look for the lightest framing material. Maybe metal studs. A thin plywood base, with maybe an access panel for wiring and a luan top with a foam cover on top. Removable wood sides to allow access for wiring and storage of power packs, switches and maybe trays of cars and locos. I'm not ready to pick a track design, but am pretty sure I will have DCC and DC running on isolated lines. This will allow me to slowly convert to DCC and run trains that will never be DCC.
There's no way you'll be able to build a 4'x8' layout up against a wall. It's not just not ideal, it may be impossible. a 4' reach is a lot of space to clear just on your own. Now add delicate buildings, expensive trains, and all on some thin wires, and you have an accident waiting to happen. What is the space of your room/ the space you're building your layout on? There simply has to be a better track plan, even if it means compromising some of your space or moving around some of the stuff in the room. Alex
Have you considered the far simpler expedient of changing to N scale and doing a loop layout on a 30"x80" hollow core door instead? Or doing a water wing shaped layout - maybe curved around a corner, with a narrow waist in the corner and wider turn back curves on the wider section. Or if H0 scale is a must - doing a point-to-point layout on narrow(ish) shelves along two or three walls? Or a layout consisting of several sections which can be assembled when you want to run, and put away on shelves when you need the room for other purposes? A 4x8 foot layout with a loop (presumably in H0 scale) is a bad idea (tm) if you want to run passenger trains and have them look good, since doing a loop within 4 feet of depth forces curve radii to be relatively small (even if you run along the edge, you get max 22" radius - and more normally 18-20" radius - which makes passenger cars look pretty bad with the overhang). But your layout, your time and your money. Smile, Stein
Oops Left a few things out. It is n scale. I have considered every square inch of my house ad nauseum. If I want space, before the kids are out of the house, this is my shot. Shelves wont work, I want long trains on a loop, while reading or watching TV. It will only be against a wall, when running. For construction and repair, I can put it on the floor, or suspend it from my desk, to a horse. I deleted the picture, of the pulley system. It will lower on to a desk, when in use. That all said, does anyone have a layout that hangs from an indoor ceiling?
So why make the layout 4x8 feet then? You don't need 4 feet of depth to do a respectable N scale layout, and going that deep creates access problems and storage problems. You could possibly even leave a layout up all the time if you made a layout that is narrower at the center and had wider lobes on the ends for turnback curves - hard to say, since we don't know much about what your room looks like and how the layout has to interact with the rest of the stuff in the room. Smile, Stein
As already suggested, you could use foam for weight reduction. However, I have a feeling you won't want to use it with some framing for strength. Most likely raising and lowering will cause some stresses over time. How close to the ceiling must it be when raised? Just wondering about scenic possibilities and how those might be limited....
dont know about hanging a layout, but i have built a layout in a garage 2-4x8s across from each other that were on hinges with a base of shelves for storage. they were held in a up position with latches at the top. [when car in the garage] i had two rolling karts placed under when trainboards were down. these karts contained rolling stock and anything else for storage. HAd a 12 width[height] for hills and buildings . used some foam,made it light. Was lifted by hand never a problem with warp or breakage....sorry cant locate pics,
I may not go 4 feet deep, I will startt with 4 feet and maybe cut it back. How close to the ceiling is tbd. No matter how small it is, it has to raise off my desk, as my wife wants that space available when guests use the room. It may end up down most of the time, but it will need to go up. As to height, if George (forgot his avatar name) can fold a cell tower into a closing door, I can probably find a way to be happy with the height I get. I'm, assuming 6 - 8 inches above the base. What has me specifically leaning towards 4x8 is my unrealistic expectation that I will be able to park the hiawatha set,the southern daylight set and another tbd passenger set (probably amtrak), while still having room to move 1 of them and a short freight train, or 2... I know I need more space, for that to be realistic, but I don't want to wait 3 more years, until enough kids are out of the house for me to take over a room (and then, what if they don't leave ? I love em, but I wanna play).
I used this exact same system to suspend my N Scale layout from the ceiling. It is 4x6, and I lower it down to 4 folding legs over the table saw in my basement workshop. I have access to all four sides of it, though! The cables are NOT flimsy, they are braided steel encased in plastic. It tends to not be completely level (by couple inches here and there), so it is a good idea to level it by lowering on the desk! Happy building!
Hello Marty, I had a suspended layout in an Appartment a number of years ago. Actually it was before digital cameras became common, so I do not have any digital photos. We lived in a rented appartment and there was no other space available but the dining room. So for entertaining guests the layout needed to disappear. I suspended it from the ceiling using 4 cables. Each cable went to a block mounted to the ceiling, then over to one side, through another block and into a counterweight. I used a rectangular flower planter as counterweight that I filled with sand. As I continued to build the layout it was getting heavier, so I could add sand to keep it balanced. I used L-Girder construction with two very heavy crossmembers under the L-Girder close to each end, app. 3x3s. The cables were attached to these crossmembers. Total Layout size app. 8 by 2.5 feet. It did not have any legs, but was always suspended. I was afraid that changing from suspension to legs would introduce different stresses, leading to flex in the structure. After a couple of monthes it had a very slight sag in the middle, but stabilized at that point. Using heavier uprights in the L-Girder or movimg the suspension points further inward would have minimized that sag. In the down-position I could lock it to a shelf on the wall with case locks. The shelf also held two staging yards, one on top of the other. Each yard had 3 tracks, so I could stage 6 trains. They would run onto the layout, do some switching or stop at the passenger station, and move to the other staging yard. These staging shelfs were a very useful addition, and the trains made for great conversation pieces when we had guests. The underside of the layout and the front facia were fully enclosed and painted white, as were the walls and the ceiling. So the whole thing looked like it belonged up there.... So it is doable, but working on the underside became painfull as I always needed to remove the enclosure panels from the underside. I hope this gives you some ideas... Cheers Dirk
Marty: Your lift mechanism looks to be more than adequate and will do exactly what you want it to. Next a box frame with adequate internal bracing (L girder or X style). That leaves the problem of the desk against the wall with the layout resting on the desk. Easy fix, put locking side mount (to avoid raising the desk too high) casters on the inside leg / frame / panel of the desk so that you can move it away from the wall. Then you will have access to all sides of the layout when in use. Nothing hardware cannot solve. Jerry
