Raising and lowering a shelf railrad

[Pastor Dave]

I was told that there was an article a few years ago about how to build a railroad that would raise out of the way when not in use and lower for use.

I want to build a shelf railroad in a basement family room but I can't use that room exclusively for the layout.  Anyone have any ideas, recollections?

[Phoebe Vet]

A)  Welcome aboard.

B)   Try  this:

http://cs.trains.com/forums/441926/ShowPost.aspx

[jawnt]

Pastor D., something to keep in the back of your mind as you contemplate this ----

Harbor Freight (Long Beach, Calif. with outlets in many larger cities, they also do mailorder) has a 120 V AC geared wench usually in the $100 - $150 range and often on sale.

I have 2  of them rated at 1500 lbs. Being 68 and tired of trying to manhandle 3/4" plywood in my cabinet shop, I use them to move plywood and finished pieces where ever needed. I've never left anything suspended for more than over night, so I don't know how long the brake system would hold.

It would be a rather inexpensive solution to the raising and lowering ----

Hope this gives you some ideas.

John T. making saw dust in the cow pasture

[ndbprr]

FIrst of all the structure to hold the railroad proper has to be rigid and solidly built.  Then you need a way to set it on the ground like some serious card table legs at various points.  the rest is easy. With some screw eyes that can handle the weight on the railroad you can attach cables to the screw eyes up over a pulley or pulleys to coffee cans or buckets filled with enough weight to balance the railroad.  then lifting or lowering it takes one or two fingers. Bring it down and detach each weight for operating and you are in business.  If you use several weights the cables can run to one central location so they are out of the way and they are far easier to detach from the railroad

[tgindy]

I'm a bi-vocational minister, meaning I have "two occupations" including a secular occupation, but we own our home without the need to ever move the layout due to a new church assignment.

If you are subject to church moves, you might also consider "secure-bolted together" modular benchwork construction, that can easily be disassembled if an out-of-town assignment occurs.

[SBCA]

You might consider the concept of making the shelf relatively narrow.  18"-24" wide, down to even 12" wide seems to be pretty common these days, with beautiful layout designs.

It's likely that you could make an attractive narrow layout like this that would be less intrusive then a pulley/rope system with stuff hanging from the ceiling!

Happy planning!

[wjstix]

I'm using 16" wide John Sterling shelves from the local home center. With a narrow shelf you can put the layout pretty high (mine's about 55", could be higher if not for the bifocal factor) so you have room underneath for a lot of stuff.