My hoist away garage layout beginnings


V

Victor Ferguson

New Member
I don't have the room for a nice large H.O. layout as I would like but I did find a way to have something in the garage.
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It is hoisted to the rafters by a electric hoist. I used 1/8" luan plywood over foam board mostly.

Seems to work okay for now.
Victor
 
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very similar to my 1st. Mine was only 8x12', w/ quad-reduction pulleys and a HAND boat winch. I used fold-up legs that I could set before it got all the way down. I also had some safety ropes that I attached once fully hoisted to take the load off the winch (loops around a joist and then hooked over the ends of a few beams on the layout, using a broom handle to position...I slept better!)
 
Great idea - use what ya'got. Those eye hooks will disappear under either a movable building or just behind some bush. Thanks for the pictures.
 
The real key to a lift system for a layout is to have one that lifts and lowers the layout surface so it always stays level. What looks OK with nothing on it will cause problems when you have ballasted track and scenery and the least bit of wracking of the surface as it's raised and lowered will cause things to break and come loose. Is there any way you can move that one cable in the middle over to the side, so it lines up with the rear cable? Can you then add a fourth cable that will line up with the other rear cable? The three point system may work out fine but I'm a nervous guy like Ken when it comes to these kind of things. :)
 
Cool idea, I like how it fits around the opener!
I'd also go with four cables for stability tho.
Keep the pics coming!
 
Jim, one of the reasons I had to use quad-reduction pulleys was that the subframe was so heavy due to the extra bracing I used to keep it as still as possible. Using steel cable will help a lot; mine used rope, and that seemed to stretch over time. Altho I never had much scenery on mine, the foam (over the plywood deck) with papier mache) seemed to be flexible enough.

My biggest issue was my garage faced southwest and the evening sun absolutely cooked me and the layout. If I had to do it again a 1 ton AC would go in first!
 
A/c

kenw said:
My biggest issue was my garage faced southwest and the evening sun absolutely cooked me and the layout. If I had to do it again a 1 ton AC would go in first!
Click to expand...

Try installing a Mini-Split A/C unit. They take up very little on the interior, and can be placed on a wall mount rack or a slab outside. I have 25k BTU unit from Toshiba, purchased on eBay (delivered for $995.00) and it cools my three-car detached garage for $45/month set at 64 degrees F. Costs $125.00 for the electrician to install the three-phase to the outside.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I will look into using four lift points. Not sure why I went with three.

It is some what unstable this way and having trains on the layout while lifting will be a problem. I realize that I may have more issuses down the line. One thing I already don't like is that the hoist is to quick. It has one speed.

Well, for now it does:D

Victor
 
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I'm hoping to do a similar thing in the future.

So how big is it?

Are you planning to attach folding legs eventually or will the sawhorses be permanent?

Where did you get your electric hoist?
 
It's 10' x 12' I need to make the legs soon. I think it could be simple to add them.

The hoist is the cheapest I could find from Harbor Freight. It works but I would like it to be slower.

Victor
 
I found some links of other hoist away systems that might give you additional inspiration:

Lots of good pictures. Nice frame with steel cables. Used 3" deep foam (3x 1") and a few cross members for support.
http://www.losalamos.com/tauxe/ho/

Bit of description and some pictures.
http://www.model-railroad-infoguy.com/suspended-layout.html

A thread with some good information and pictures.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/146796/1628467.aspx

A very cool slot car layout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwe0Brt0mOY
 
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I now realize my idea is dangerous. Yesterday some items came down on me from up in the garage rafters while rasing the layout table.
The I read this online somewhere:

"Rigging is a dangerous business for amateurs. Especially if you're affixing your force
multipliers to architectual elements of a building. You can easily rig simple arrangements of ropes and pulleys that you think should move something, and find that when you try it, what moves is walls and roofs."

I need to re-think this.
Victor
 
One thing I did (I am an engineer, so it would have been very embarassing to have a failure) was to use load spreader construction in the attic.

each pulley support was actually using a threaded eye bolt, thru a 2x4 that was on top of 2 ceiling joists. This spread each load across 2 joists instead of 1. Using a screw eye (uses a nut) instead of a lag eye (screws directly into wood) meant that I could further increase the margin by placing fender washers under the nut to spread that load better.
 
I saw an interesting note in the book "The Classic Layout Designs of John Armstrong".
The Carlsbad & East Portal & Zenith Railroad is an N scale 4x8 that raises and lowers. There really isn't anything about the mechanism except a diagram. The notes on the diagram say:

Pulleys supported by joist
All pulleys: marine-quality with ball bearings
1/8" dia woven nylon ropes
To garage-door mechanism used to raise and lower layout

I hadn't thought of using a garage door opener instead of a hoist. Interesting idea.
 
Victor Ferguson said:
Yesterday some items came down on me from up in the garage rafters while rasing the layout table.
Click to expand...

It does look like in one of your pictures that the pulley was attached to some lightweight wood between the joists.

Since my garage ceiling has drywall I was thinking of attaching angle iron (perhaps an old bed frame) to several joists/rafters then attaching the pulleys to holes drilled in the angle iron.
 
another resurectes thread!

i thoguht about going with hoist up layout but went with fold-to-wall instead since my attached garage has finished ceiling and even lower suspended cieleing where the garage opener sits.
to fold the table up, locks removed and side attached to wall slides down on uni-strut "rails". then i can raise the table up. with foam installed i have 6" of vertical clearance for scenery. for now 2 people are required to lift and lower the table so it stays level with the rails but i'll figure out some sort of winch mechanism later.
 
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