novice question here... but should the road bed spiral start flush with the base plate... or are you going to cut a bit of the riser to allow a smooth transition on to the spiral riser? Just looks tight getting on it. Excellent work! Thanks for sharing.
I will most likely splice a transitional sub-roadbed somewhere mid run between riser 1 and riser 2. I still have a lot of work to do as there will also be a return loop running around the base of the helix from the lower deck. That is why I have allowed extra height above the base on the risers. I wasn't totally sure how it was all going to come together so made no provision for the return loop to run around the helix. Now that everything is in place I can mark out the return loop and cut a section out of each riser for the return track. It's light enough for me to lift by myself, I carried it in from outside. It's just a bit awkward and will be a two person job to move when it grows legs.
Ken: Cutting through supports works just fine! The second pic shows a hole through a support so the track can exit the helix without a nasty S-Curve to get between supports. At the right edge of the picture, it also shows how an additional notch was cut in that support to provide a riser under a track that sweeps around the outside of the helix and never connects into this helix. Will you have any clearance issues between the railheads as they pass under the 2nd loop to get to the inside/bottom/first loop? In the pic above, notice how I cut out the OSB panel and left just the homasote under the track for the 2nd loop to yield enough clearance between the 1st/lower loop railheads and the underside of the subroadbed of the 2nd loop. This pic below shows the Kellar Helix. It also had the OSB panel cut out from under the homasote for additional clearance. (FYI--The distance from outside to inside the helix is very short here...a little less than the length of this loco. I put these trees on the inside of the helix so trains disappearing into the helix looked like they were passing out of sight behind trees. If the trees aren't there, operators can see beyond the area that is covered with the green blended turf ground foam. Do you plan on putting track or scenery around the outside of the helix at the top? Although the particular helix shown in this next pic does not have a loop around its top, you can see how I used styrofoam to form low hills that block viewing into the helix and ran the double tracks past the helix. In your plan, you could hug the helix a little closer than I posititioned my tracks in this picture so you could loop around behind the helix if you wanted without increasing the footprint too much. Consider how you might support that top loop around the outside of the helix. Options include: 1. using the supports where they extend above the helix loops (like I think I see on some (but not all) of the supports in some in your pictures), and 2. adding separate supports. Check Hemi's pics...he used separate supports for where his tangent left the top of the layout, and there are no supports sticking up above the top loop of his helix. I suspect he'll stop his scenery at the point where the lower (staging) track, middle track and upper track connect the helix to the shelves. I've used both methods around my layout, and have not had problems with either method. If you are modeling a hilly or mountainous area near your helix, and a rising grade is a realistic land formation to model in this area of your layout, then you can add length to the mainline by making the last half of the top loop visible across the front of the layout (as long as the track exits the top of the helix near the front of the helix instead of the back).
Dave is that your layout? Can I come over and play trains? nice shots! I have been thinking alot about returning to lichen for trees. Those shots really show up how nice the classic materials work in the smaller scales. I really like the forest in the lowest picture down in the left hand corner. It looks like the real thing at a distance. Very nice.
Geeky: Yep, it's mine...let me know the next time you're in Central Illinois and you can run some trains. I've used lichen and toothpicks for most of my trees...although this spring I started using some of the Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage, too, especially for the foreground trees. Here's another shot of the helix and the nearby "forest" from a slightly different angle. I have several areas where my densely packed trees separate operating areas. Here the Rock Island Beltline serves industries in South Peoria along the river on the left, and the BN and CNW main tracks curve behind and enter the helix on the right to exit Peoria to the west into staging. The Peoria and Pekin Union Ry double main curves behind the trees and in front of the helix to cross the Rock Island Beltline on the peninsula about 10 feet to the left of this picture. Ken: This view shows one way the area near a helix can be used. Even if you can only squeeze in 4 to 6 inches of shelf, you can still put a sceniced main to loop around the outside of the helix or sceniced industrial siding(s) between the aisle and the helix.
Thanks for sharing shots of your layout Dave, it has given me lots to think about. I like the idea of keeping the top of the helix open so that you can stand up inside. So yes, good idea, a shelf around the aisle side with some screening screnery sounds great. I was wondering what to do with the top as it is such a large area. Total enclosure of the top creates access problems, I thought about a hatch but... It all gets too complicated. Keep it simple works for me!
Dave, I doubt I'll be rolling through that part of the country anytime soon, but thanks for the invite. I used to live in Urbana back in the 70's. Had a chance to drive through Peoria back then as a kid. I recall thinking it had quite a bit of railroad appeal. Of course the family wasn't into railfanning so I just got the view going through and ate at howard johnsons.
Ken: FWIW--My upper deck is at 65 inches and I have numerous 12 inch high benches around the layout that bring the functional height of the upper deck to 53 inches. I've tried to set up view blocks near the helixes so that a causal observer is prevented from seeing into the helix, but when an operator wants to see his train in the helix, all he has to do is lean forward a little to see over the view block and into the helix.
More progress, I layed track on the helix and have raised it on legs to final height. Some pics. I hooked power up to the helix last night and did some test runs. My Atlas SD60M ran great up and down, no glitches or derailments. So I then hooked some stack cars behind the loco to get a feel for how it would pull up the grade. I figured it should pull 16 cars easily... Wrong, the loco would pull the train but at almost full throttle and wheel spinning all the way. I added two more locos and some improvement but still noticable wheel spin to get the train up the grade. I still need to brace the benchwork and square it up properly. The bass of the helix is 44" above the floor and the top is at 60" The veiw through the doorway into the trainroom.
Ken: I saw some small improvement in total number of cars I could pull up a helix when I was much more careful about making cars too heavy. Thanks for the pics. Very impressive. Tell us a little about the engineered lumber you used for the supports, support base panel, and helix ramp subroadbed. Cost, ease of cutting, what it is like to work with compared to plywood or homasote, 1/4 inch beech veneer, etc., How well does it take track nails or glue (whichever you are using to hold your track in place). How about paint and scenery...does paint/scenery go on in the same manner as paint or scenery on plywood? Regarding pulling long trains up the helix: For a while I just kept telling myself I'd have to live with dragging fewer cars up a helix, but when I caught myself teasing a friend about his cars weighing 4 or 5 times the recommended weight, I realized I should check my own cars...WOW! I hadn't realized how many I had overweighted. I still deliberately error on the heavy side with my beer can tank cars and most of my 2 bay covered hoppers, but just about everything else is (now) very close to NMRA best practices standards. Determining the best weight for cars is always controversial. If someone starts a thread in the Inspection Pit, it is likely to elicit some lively (but probably informative) debate.
Dave: All my rolling stock to date as new from the manufacturer with no added weight but even so I think that there is a lot of variability. I have yet to confirm this I will test on our kitchen scales. I can't really test the pulling power of a lashup at the momment as my locos are a missmatch (a mixture of Atlas, Kato and Athearn) I am waiting for an NCE Power Cab DCC controller to arrive and should then be able to run a muliple unit lashup and do some more tests. Pic of Atlas SD60M pulling 12 cars slowly with no wheel spin and without stalling.
Most of the timber I am using is recycled from my last layout. Clear pine mostly, two sizes, 2 1/2" x 3/4" and 1 3/4" x 3/4". I am using 1 1/2" wood screws to hold it all together I also pre-drill holes to avoid spliting the timber. The MDF (medium density fiberboard) is easy to work with and I prefer MDF over pylwood. The panels are straight and without imperfections. However,the down side not as strong as plywood and heavier. I found laying track on MDF sub-roadbed a breeze whether using track pins on my HO layout or using glue (No More Nails) on my present layout. In fact No More Nails is a great product to use and is so easy. Just a light smeer of glue on the MDF so that it is just tacky to the touch is enough. Then lay the track. The glue dries in about 20 minutes but even after it dries it still remains soft and slightly flexible. So if you need to lift the track for any reason you can carefully pry the track and break the bond without breaking the track.
The benchwork is starting to come together. The next thing is to build the second helix on the other side of the room then add some more benchwork to connect the two. After that start laying track. My new DCC controller arrived just in time for the weekend Had a lot of fun programing locos and fiddling about running trains up and down the helix.
Helix number two is starting to take shape, I didn't get much done last week as it was my turn for afternoon shift at work. This week I should get the helix fininshed and most of the benchwork. Did the string thing again, pretty much followed the same method as the first time around. This is another view of the base showing how I attached the risers to the base board. The risers fit between the pairs of blocks that are fixed the the base. I cut the center out of the 6mm MDF and got ready to cut along the black cutlines to make the spiral sub-roadbed. This is about all I managed to do today before the rain set in. I knew the weather was marginal, but I still thought I could get all the jig saw work finished, wrong! Man it was a mad dash to get everything in under cover before it got wet. Maybe the weather will be kinder tommorrow?
I finished the second helix this weekend and now all is ready for the next stage, build benchwork joining the two together. Each of these helii require 25 x 30" lenghts of Atlas code 55 flexi-track. I took this shot standing in helix #1 the track you see will eventually join the top of the second helix.
