Thats what I mean realy, people get carried away. Also you must look after your own health. Got a buddy with problems, messed up back and diabeties but both (in his case) could be fixed with the loss of weight, but he will not, make me sad.
I am 71 years old and in a wheelchair due to loss of a leg. I built my layout benchwork with a 34" height. I am putting in a second level and I use a drafting chair with good rollers and it is quite satisfactory in getting around to all the layout. The layour is appx 16’x24" with an 8" across the back then another 16"x24" leg. Just over 3 foot aisle and it works for me. Still enough room to turn a wheelchair around in.
My layout is about 46" high, which when sitting in a typical rolling office chair is a touch below eye level for me and affords a good view of the layout. If I need to work on the layout, I stand up. If my back starts to bug me, I sit down for a while. As noted, being able to sit on the chair and reach under the layout when doing stuff underneath is nice.
Anyway I’d experiment with different heights first, maybe just a shelf piece temporarily set at different heights. It could be a layout low enough to see and operate sitting down might be higher than you might expect.
You might take a look at the Midland Valley RR in MR June 1977. It’s a 14’x25’ layout built in a 3 car garage with steel cables, pulleys, and counterweight to raise and lower the layout.
While not exactly a how to article, it does provide some info on how it was done.
Paul
Now THAT was an interesting read, Paul, thanks. (one of the few times I’ve been able to acess the archives) I think the counter weight is the key element for doing something like this.
I guess no one wanted to stand on step ladders and get pictures of whats above the ceiling.
Mike.
The hardest part of such a layout is making the frame strong enough that it can be held by 4 or maybe 6 points and not sag. I know thee was one that used a steel frame connected to the lifting cables, witht he rest made of wood bilted to the steel main frame. I rember another one that was lift up like that that was in the basement of the house instead of out int he garage. And I also think there was one from earlier, somewhere int he 50’s maybe, by John Armstrong that was designed for being suspended, with the main frame members that the cables connected to being doubled for strength. Still not a how-to article, but a bit more detail.
That tilting one is sort of what i was trying to explain, though not as wide - say 2’ deep or so, 5-8 feet wide, a series of modules that flip up like that, runnign around the walls for a room size layout. Or, modules that mount in frames along the wayy, that are fixed in place, and just one “work unit” where any of th emodules can be places and then flipped over as shown - work on one section at a time, top side, flip it over to work on the bottom, and when done it gets slipped into the supprot structure as the next completed module. Any work needs to be done, the module gets removes and mounted in the rotating holder. Using lightweight construction methods, there’s no reason even someone wheelchair bound couldn’t pull a module and carry it on their lap in the wheelchair over to the work holder where it can be flipped over and worked on. All from a seated position.
–Randy