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| A 5'x6' candidate for flying table-ization under a very high ceiling |
Flying table: A layout suspended from a ceiling. Pulleys are used to lower the layout for use and raise for storing.
Usage: The rec-room featured a flying table.
Source: Although now a fairly common way of accommodating a layout in a home, especially in a garage, referring to the design as a flying table was first noted in Jack Stark’s article in the July 1960 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman called, “flying table”: Volar Mesa Lines. Mr. Stark notes how he got the idea for accommodating a layout in his house, which had no room for a conventionally supported one: While looking wistfully at the pike in the hobby shop window, I voiced my unhappiness at the state of affairs. And my wife, jokingly (I think) said, “Why don’t you hang it from the ceiling?” Flying table layouts are usually small. Mr. Stark’s was based on a classic 4’x8’ sheet of plywood.
Mr. Stark also notes that ‘flying table’ is roughly derived from the Spanish, ‘volar mesa’, which was incorporated into the name of his layout.
from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.
That looks like a 4x8 version of my N scale EVRR. Huh! Well, he put most of his incline along the backside after it passed under itself. And his incline was even steeper than mine because he left all the rest flat on the table where mine was allowed to go the opposite direction. Still, that's a tough hill to climb on either layout. Mine still required a pusher, but maybe that's because N is not as powerful as HO.
ReplyDeleteThat layout in the photo is an HO one I built around 2003 based on one that appears in 101 Track Planning ideas. It ran ok, but as you mention, even its grades were rather steep. I gave up on it not because of steep grades, but because there were lots of buildings I wanted to make, but no room for them on the layout. Also, it's this ancient layout that this blog is named after: it was 5x6, hence 30 square (feet) :-)
DeleteJim::
ReplyDeleteCheck out page 122 of David Sutton's The Complete Book of Model Railroading for further reference.
.vp
Will do. Thanks for the reference!
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