Hi all,
I was at the train show in Sacramento last weekend and had the opportunity to talk to one of the members of the Sacramento Model RR Club (Historical Society?) as he was trailing his assigned train around the track that they had set up for the show. I overheard him talking to someone else about a layout that other person had suspended from their ceiling, and wanted to ask him a couple of questions about it, as I have been thinking of doing the same thing in our den and garage. Basically, I was thinking that it ought to be possible to have a series of pullies on the ceiling, and ceiling-wall corner, through which a number of cables would pass, going from some kind of winch at one end, to cleats or eye-bolts on the layout at the other end.
The layout I am envisaging for the den is an inverted "L" with the long-vertical side being 8-9ft, the long base being about 5-6' and the thin top of the "L" being between 3 and 4 feet. This will be an N scale layout, so I'm not really worried about track radiuses (radii?). There are a number of reasons I've concocted to justify this idea:
- Dust is lighter at the ceiling so the layout should remain cleaner than if it were at waist level.
- Space is always at a premium wherever you go in our house.
- That blood in me that is Scots in origin hates the idea of wasting anything, and there's all that lovely unused space near the ceiling that hasn't been crammed with good single malts.
- Our 110lb German Shepherd can take out an entire N or HO town with one mighty sweep of his tail.
- Our 12lb Terrier can leap (from a standing start) into my arms 4' above the ground
- My sense of cussedness is acute enough to make me want to do anything that would solicit "He's lost his marbles" looks from anyone.
So, does anyone here have any experience with this kind of setup, or am I the only congenitally insane person to stagger in here?
Ed
I was at the train show in Sacramento last weekend and had the opportunity to talk to one of the members of the Sacramento Model RR Club (Historical Society?) as he was trailing his assigned train around the track that they had set up for the show. I overheard him talking to someone else about a layout that other person had suspended from their ceiling, and wanted to ask him a couple of questions about it, as I have been thinking of doing the same thing in our den and garage. Basically, I was thinking that it ought to be possible to have a series of pullies on the ceiling, and ceiling-wall corner, through which a number of cables would pass, going from some kind of winch at one end, to cleats or eye-bolts on the layout at the other end.
The layout I am envisaging for the den is an inverted "L" with the long-vertical side being 8-9ft, the long base being about 5-6' and the thin top of the "L" being between 3 and 4 feet. This will be an N scale layout, so I'm not really worried about track radiuses (radii?). There are a number of reasons I've concocted to justify this idea:
- Dust is lighter at the ceiling so the layout should remain cleaner than if it were at waist level.
- Space is always at a premium wherever you go in our house.
- That blood in me that is Scots in origin hates the idea of wasting anything, and there's all that lovely unused space near the ceiling that hasn't been crammed with good single malts.
- Our 110lb German Shepherd can take out an entire N or HO town with one mighty sweep of his tail.
- Our 12lb Terrier can leap (from a standing start) into my arms 4' above the ground
- My sense of cussedness is acute enough to make me want to do anything that would solicit "He's lost his marbles" looks from anyone.
So, does anyone here have any experience with this kind of setup, or am I the only congenitally insane person to stagger in here?
Ed