Model train layouts can often take up an entire room's floor space.
One of the biggest problems that model railroaders run into is a lack of space for their hobby. Depending on the scale of the trains that you run and the overall size of your layout, it may not be feasible to install your train set on a traditional bench system. This makes suspending your train layout from a ceiling an extremely appealing consideration. It is, however, a relatively difficult project to undertake unless you have a very good idea of just how you can go about it.
Instructions
1. Drill holes for the eye bolts into the train layout that will support the layout when it is hanging from the ceiling. These bolts will have to be placed at intervals of approximately every four feet around the perimeter of the train layout. The holes should be drilled through a support beam underneath the train layout. Avoid mounting the eye bolt to only the plywood top of the layout.
2. Drill holes in the ceiling directly above each of the eye bolts. This is where the cables that raise and lower the layout will be positioned. You may find it helpful when doing this to use a laser pointer that has the same size shaft as the hole you drilled for the eye bolts. All you have to do is insert the laser pointer into the bolt hole and then turn it on. The laser will point to where the hole should be drilled.
3. Install the eye bolts into the train layout by pushing the threaded bolt through the top of the layout and fastening it on the bottom with a washer and a locking nut.
4. Install the pulley supports in the attic of your home just above the . If you have a second floor above the room where the layout will be installed, the pulleys will have to be installed below the level of the ceiling rather than hidden above it. If you have to do this, use lag eye bolts installed into the framing joists of the ceiling. If you can install the board in an attic, mount the lag eye bolts into 2x4 lumber laminated to 4x4 lumber laid across the joists. If you have a particularly heavy layout, such as an "O" gauge layout, use 2x6 lumber instead of 2x4.
5. Mount the winch either in your attic or near the baseboards of the room. It is important that the winch has enough draw strength to pull up the layout, but also enough room to raise and lower the layout in place. For this reason, it should be mounted as far away from the first holes you drilled in the ceiling as the amount of space that the layout will have to be raised to get it out of the way. The winch should be mounted as securely as possible, so you may have to use 2x6 lumber laminated into 4x6 lumber and mounted to the ceiling joists with lag bolts.
6. Construct a gangway that will channel the cables from the ceiling pulleys to the winch. This can be done by simply mounting a number of pulleys to a piece of laminated lumber. For heavy layouts, construct the gangway out of two to three pieces of 2x6 lumber laminated together with wood screws. Lighter "N" or "HO" scale layouts may only require 2x4s.
7. Install the gangway for the wires to be connected to. This will channel all of the cables into one place where the winch can be used to lift them all at once. The gangway should be positioned at least as far from the winch as there is distance for the layout to be lifted. This means that the gangway will be much closer to the cables and the holes than the winch will be.
8. Cut one length of braided steel cord for each eye bolt on the layout using a cut-off wheel on a rotary tool. To determine the necessary length of each cable, run the cable through the gangway, into one of the ceiling pulleys and then down to the train layout. Cut the pulley approximately 12 inches away from the gangway on the winch side.
9. Build loops in the ends of each of the cut are on the winch side of the gangway by doubling the cable over itself and then installing a compression band on the cable to hold it in place. When each of them is looped, connect them to the winch's cable hook.
10. Install hooks onto the other end of each of the cables so that the cable is tight when it is hooked onto the eye bolts. If you have to, you can loop the cable over itself in the same way that you looped the other end and use "S" hooks to connect the eye bolt to the cable loop.
11. Plug in the winch to an appropriate power outlet and use its remote control to raise the layout a few feet into the air and test the holding strength of your installation. Check all the cable connections and connections to the ceiling trusses. It is also important that the layout be lifted evenly across all of the eye hooks.
Tags: train layout, bolts into, cables that, from ceiling, layout will