Who has one of these? I think I need one but maybe I am letting the 8 year old boy in me get the better of my judgment
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=83538
Dave Nelson
It was reported recently on another forum that George Sellios uses one to work on his Franklin & South Manchester layout. Looks like a neat item if you have the need.
This is made by REL Products. You can find them for $200 - $250 all over the Internet(plus shipping). The Micro Mark price is about average when you include the shipping. They are designed for working over engines on vehicles. I looked at this in their last catalog I got in the mail, but the item is rather ‘pricy’ and if you really need it to reach an area of you layout, you probably designed it wrong to start with!
Jim
With the trend toward higher layouts this item will be more popular. As you know the higher your layout is the shallower it has to be. If it is shoulder height you can only reach as far as your arm is long. At waist high you can bend from the waist & reach almost 2 times as far. I figure if I want a higher layout I can always sit down.
I bought one about 20 years ago off a Snap On Tools truck. They’re really good for working on 4X4 trucks.
About half a century ago there was a piece in Model Railroader about a modeler’s “trapeze” platform which the builder used for working at the far rear of some really wide benchwork. The “store boughten” item referenced above seems to be a better solution.
Of course, designing the benchwork low and narrow is an even better solution - but sometimes reality intrudes on our dream worlds by (e.g.) forcing a return loop into a corner in HO or larger scale.
Chuck (who managed to get the reverse loop out of the corner, but may end up buying this gadget anyway)
Well a friend of mine bought and built the Topside Creeper from MicroMark and I have had a chance to look it over and give it a try. It would have value especially if you ignore all those rules about not locating tracks further away than you can easily reach (I follow those rules but my friend did not, or rather his custom builders installed a backdrop where I would have thought they’d preserve ready access to a return loop).
I had wondered if one could lie on one’s back and change flourescent lightbulbs above the layout – but it is so constructed that I thought my back was going to snap in half when I lay down on it facing up. It does seem extremely secure and solid.
Final conclusion – really neat but I can live without it.
Dave Nelson
Beinf disabled, I wouldn’t be able to use it at all.
I think it looks great. In fact, I wish I’d been aware of it sooner, as some of the layout design compromises I made to preserve reachability wouldn’t have been necessary…
If you build strong benchwork you won’t need it[:)].I saw a video sometime in the past few months that showed a guy doing maintenance on a large yard on a model rr while standing or squatting ,as it were ,on the tracks.
That has been my approach. I will build a low platform on some well-placed blocks that will sit between the tracks in my yard. The bench, itself, is plenty strong, and a $25 three step stool gets me up onto it.
It’s unclear to me from the picture how much practical working reach you get with one of these. I have found that for tall benchwork (mine is 58" high) that a 2 step stepstool (the kind with the wide steps and no pads; not the ladder kind or the kind with a padded second step for sitting) works very well for getting up and extending my reach. Unless you need more than 2 1/2 to 3 feet, I don’t see this helping much - question is: will it do 4 ft?
Enjoy
Paul
MicroMark just released a rail system that bolts to the ceiling above the layout. It will suspend you from 4 steel cables and you can work with a remote control that will left you up and down. It has a switch that will let the rail system come out from the layout so you can lay on the ground facing down and just winch yourself up and towards the layout. It will hold up to 500# in case you want a friend up there with you. I saw one in a small video from MicroMark at there websight.
Assuming you can push the front wheels under the layout I think it could do four feet.
Dave Nelson
Seems like a great concept to me, as I could have used it on my old layout that me and my dad built, on which the back was virtually inaccessible. We used a yardstick with a wire hook to retreive derailed rolling stock- not very good if my first P2K derailed…But that monstrosity was dismantled 3 years ago, and my new, ergonomically freindly layout built in it’s place…
Dave
FYI, Advance Auto Parts has these for $170. Exactly the same product, as the name Topside Creeper is copyrighted.
Bought one.
Good points:
-
very Strong
-
very Heavy
-
Very BIG
-
Goes up to 72" above floor
-
Well made
-
Worked great on the Z71 (son used it)
Bad points:
-
You need to design your aisle width for this.
-
Must remove the tool pouch to clear the front of the layout
-
By the time you get it high enough to clear the structures, cars and waht not ib the front YOU HIT THE CEILING with your head and butt in the average size basement.
-
It is VERY BIG
-
Needs some modifications to be able to use iy on a normal layout.
-
You can not have a GUT and use it, that is what you are resting on to work. UNLESS you use only one hand to do anything.
It is probably going to the restoration shop instead of the layout.
I bet that’s what they originally intended the thing for, working under the hoods of high up trucks.
For Christmas I should buy a topside creeper for my dad, he’s 5’5" tall and always working on his lifted Ram.
Dave
I don’t need one due to shallow benchwork, but my main question would be where to store the thing when it was not in use. Looks like a real space eater to me.
Tom
Tom, to put it in context
I store it under my highest benchwork (53") that area supports: (1) 103 ft turntable, Roundhouses, yard and passenger terminal and is 58" deep and it JUST fits. Lot of parking space for a glorified ladder.
This is an OLD picture but you get the idea. this whole area in the picture is what it takes to store it.
