That is delightful.
Did you *have to* build the helix to accomodate the elevation change or was it a fun challenge?
I have a similar challenge preventing expansion and had thought about a single loop -- not a helix!!!!
I'm looking forward to reading about it in GR.
p.s. I love the baseball diamond!
Rene,
Okay I'll put this story together for the magazine. Where do I find the info on how to go about submitting it?
Thanks,
Rex
Rex in Pinetop add length to each of the 26 sets of legs and then add another inch of spacing to each level. Rex
Were you able to use the new Pine Board Stretcher from ACME? Or did you resort to harvesting another tree from you forest? That sounds like a BUNCH of work and finger tip pain. Seems to me it might have been easier to "bash" the new equipment shorter. Most definiately submit this one. Hope yur fingers have recovered.
Tom Trigg
Wow, that is an awesome helix! Nice work, even if you did have to make some changes later.
(And yeah, you should definitely submit that to the magazine.)
Greg,
The helix has been in for several years now. It was one of the first things I built. It's 16 1/2 feet in diameter and has 2 1/4 turns. The original design had a total of 20.25" of rise. Now it has 22.5". Total track length is about 115" and yes it does take up some room. I'm not sure what you mean by "stringlining" or being too radical. It did take some construction time as it's assembled with 4-40 bolts and blind nuts - lot of holes to drill. Here is an older picture:
A more recent picture shows the baseball field.
It was made in sections (26 of them) and then assembled on site. I did use a transit to layout the foundation since each leg base is a different heigth while the sections all had the same base to level 1 heigth.
Rex.
Rex, what is the diameter of the helix, how many turns, and overall delta in height? I was going to build a helix, but I could not use a large enough diameter to avoid stringlining. Also I needed to get 21" in about 2.5 turns... too radical..
Glad you got it going... could we have a overall view? I suspect it would be an impressive picture.
Regards, Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
What a beautiful looking helix! Don't worry about the mistake, we live and learn. - Peter
Modeling the Bellefonte Central Railroad
Fan of the PRR
Garden Railway Enthusiast
Check out my Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PennsyModeler
Rex nice to see you take something that worked and make it better.
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
Rex, I hope you will consider sending this in for our If I'd only known column (last page in the magazine). You've already made the mistake; might as well get paid for it!
Rene Schweitzer
Classic Toy Trains/Garden Railways/Model Railroader
I designed and built a helix as shown in the pictures. Unfortunately my design did not account for my purchase of two bigger/taller locomotives that would not fit through the original 9" spacing between the levels. This last week I bit the bullet and added an inch to the spacing. Not as simple as you might imagine. To get the first level up to the second I had to incrementally add length to each of the 26 sets (4 per set and 6 bolts/blind nuts per leg) of legs and then add another inch of spacing to each level. That's 624 bolts that had to be removed and replaced and of course after two winters some of those bolts didn't want to unscrew. Anyway I now have 10" of spacing between levels and everything fits.
"Plan ahead" I think is the term used for idiots like me. Next time I'll definately consider the largest locos before building something with such tight tolerances.
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