HELIX CONSTRUCTION

[ndbprr]

Believe it or not you didn't gain much by using masonite for the base. All you saved was the thickness difference over heavier wood on the first lap. After that the physics are the same regardless of the thickness of the base material. If you need 4" clearance the thickness is not part of the equation merely the rise per unit length.

[ndbprr]

Believe it or not you didn't gain much by using masonite for the base. All you saved was the thickness difference over heavier wood on the first lap. After that the physics are the same regardless of the thickness of the base material. If you need 4" clearance the thickness is not part of the equation merely the rise per unit length.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 large helixes on my layout. Both work well, (finally) but don't be fooled, Helixs take a lot of work to build. I won't go into how I built mine, just offer these cautions: 1) they take a lot longer to build than you think. They must be built very carefully or they don't work well. 2) I used double layers of masonite to keep the road bed thin. Problem with masonite is that it more easily flexes from side to side (perpedicular to the rails) so if you don't get the helix supports at the right elevations this twisting ends up derailing trains. If I do it again, I'll use threaded rods instead of notched risers (or L brakets, which I used in some spots as well) to allow easy up/down adjustment. 3) They take up a lot more space than is first evident, since the riser supports on the O.D. of the helix add to the foot print. GOOD LUCK.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 large helixes on my layout. Both work well, (finally) but don't be fooled, Helixs take a lot of work to build. I won't go into how I built mine, just offer these cautions: 1) they take a lot longer to build than you think. They must be built very carefully or they don't work well. 2) I used double layers of masonite to keep the road bed thin. Problem with masonite is that it more easily flexes from side to side (perpedicular to the rails) so if you don't get the helix supports at the right elevations this twisting ends up derailing trains. If I do it again, I'll use threaded rods instead of notched risers (or L brakets, which I used in some spots as well) to allow easy up/down adjustment. 3) They take up a lot more space than is first evident, since the riser supports on the O.D. of the helix add to the foot print. GOOD LUCK.

[Anonymous]

is there any article in MR on helix construction I have books back to 1978 thanks Terry

[Anonymous]

is there any article in MR on helix construction I have books back to 1978 thanks Terry

[Anonymous]

I recently finished building a helix but had a much larger radius to work with. Clearances will be tight to maintain a reasonable grade unless you are working in N scale. I set the bottom grade and then just worked my way up using 3" lengths of 1" X 4"s for spacers. As mentioned by many others you must lay your track as you go and would advise you use a standards guage to check your work. I also ran all my locos up and down the helix each time a segment was completed to confirm that the track was in good working order. (My ace in the hole here is an Athearn TrainMaster that is particularly good at finding any flaws in trackwork). Obviously, your subroadbed has to be wide enough to accept the spacers and you can make the spacers any height you need as long as you have clearance from one layer to the next. Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

I recently finished building a helix but had a much larger radius to work with. Clearances will be tight to maintain a reasonable grade unless you are working in N scale. I set the bottom grade and then just worked my way up using 3" lengths of 1" X 4"s for spacers. As mentioned by many others you must lay your track as you go and would advise you use a standards guage to check your work. I also ran all my locos up and down the helix each time a segment was completed to confirm that the track was in good working order. (My ace in the hole here is an Athearn TrainMaster that is particularly good at finding any flaws in trackwork). Obviously, your subroadbed has to be wide enough to accept the spacers and you can make the spacers any height you need as long as you have clearance from one layer to the next. Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

The easiest and laziest way (my kind of construction) is to use L brackets to connect your spiralling laminated plywood to the wooden uprights. People have used threaded rods, but you will be surprised at the expense. Unfortunately I lost a link to a web site that illustrated this type of construction.

I've been around, but not assisted the construction of three helix's. They can be complex; the "L" brackets idea is the easiest because you are working with two angles. With the L brackets you just hold them in place (or a tiny smidgeon of hot glue to hold them in place while you screw them in and your done.

[Anonymous]

The easiest and laziest way (my kind of construction) is to use L brackets to connect your spiralling laminated plywood to the wooden uprights. People have used threaded rods, but you will be surprised at the expense. Unfortunately I lost a link to a web site that illustrated this type of construction.

I've been around, but not assisted the construction of three helix's. They can be complex; the "L" brackets idea is the easiest because you are working with two angles. With the L brackets you just hold them in place (or a tiny smidgeon of hot glue to hold them in place while you screw them in and your done.

[thomaspier]

John -

Here is a link to a thorough article on helix construction:

http://users.rcn.com/weyand/tractronics/helix/hlxartcl.htm

This layout, and pictures of the helix, were also included in the 2002 issue of Model Railroad Planning.

Enjoy!

[thomaspier]

John -

Here is a link to a thorough article on helix construction:

http://users.rcn.com/weyand/tractronics/helix/hlxartcl.htm

This layout, and pictures of the helix, were also included in the 2002 issue of Model Railroad Planning.

Enjoy!

[ndbprr]

I haven' built one but I have thought about it for quite some time and have some thoughts. The easiest way I came up with for cutting the segments is on a band saw with a circle cutter attachment. Extend a 1x4out from the side of the saw bed so it is centered on the blade and install a dowell piece at the radius you want to cut so you get a perfect arc. By drilling a hole in the plywood you can cut the outer radius first and then the inner radius after moving the pin and using the same hole in the plywood. Then repeat. As the piece of plywood gets shorter screw a piece of 1"x4" to edge at the center line so you can cut all the plywood. So it needs to be a couple of inches longer than the biggest radius cut. I planned to make the segments about 1.5" bigger than the radii of the track so I could use threaded rods to mount the plywood. That way I could double nut the rod with a washer under the plywood and if it would ever need adjusting I could back off the lower nut and adjust the top one before snugging up the lower nut to relock it in place. I also planned to mount this from the floor beams above the railroad so I could crawl under without legs interfering with the effort as the lowest level was going to be about 48" off the ground. Alas I have decided too much railroad and will stay one level.

[ndbprr]

I haven' built one but I have thought about it for quite some time and have some thoughts. The easiest way I came up with for cutting the segments is on a band saw with a circle cutter attachment. Extend a 1x4out from the side of the saw bed so it is centered on the blade and install a dowell piece at the radius you want to cut so you get a perfect arc. By drilling a hole in the plywood you can cut the outer radius first and then the inner radius after moving the pin and using the same hole in the plywood. Then repeat. As the piece of plywood gets shorter screw a piece of 1"x4" to edge at the center line so you can cut all the plywood. So it needs to be a couple of inches longer than the biggest radius cut. I planned to make the segments about 1.5" bigger than the radii of the track so I could use threaded rods to mount the plywood. That way I could double nut the rod with a washer under the plywood and if it would ever need adjusting I could back off the lower nut and adjust the top one before snugging up the lower nut to relock it in place. I also planned to mount this from the floor beams above the railroad so I could crawl under without legs interfering with the effort as the lowest level was going to be about 48" off the ground. Alas I have decided too much railroad and will stay one level.

[dknelson]

Don't forget the "Easy Helix" product that Trainstyles advertises in MR and elsewhere. This is essentially a helix in a box (well three boxes actually) that offers everything you need except the track. I have seen a couple of them and they look to be of high quality materials
Dave Nelson

[dknelson]

Don't forget the "Easy Helix" product that Trainstyles advertises in MR and elsewhere. This is essentially a helix in a box (well three boxes actually) that offers everything you need except the track. I have seen a couple of them and they look to be of high quality materials
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

I'm currently building an N-scale layout and even though my original plan didn't include a helix, I decided by adding one I could extend my layout another level. I wasn't keen on the idea but my layout won, so I used a similar plan to that described by prhnkp I even added an exit on the middle level so I could gain an extra level for the layout and it worked and was surprisingly easy, as long as you have a lot of patience, plus count to ten, quickly., very quickly some times. Good Luck!
Steve,
Downunder.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently building an N-scale layout and even though my original plan didn't include a helix, I decided by adding one I could extend my layout another level. I wasn't keen on the idea but my layout won, so I used a similar plan to that described by prhnkp I even added an exit on the middle level so I could gain an extra level for the layout and it worked and was surprisingly easy, as long as you have a lot of patience, plus count to ten, quickly., very quickly some times. Good Luck!
Steve,
Downunder.

[allowe]

There was an N-scale article a few years ago about cutting a "spiral helix" out of one sheet of plywood, i.e., no joints. It makes a realistic mountain shape by getting smaller as you go up. I've never built one, but it sounded intriguing. Perhaps someone else knows more about this?

AL

[allowe]

There was an N-scale article a few years ago about cutting a "spiral helix" out of one sheet of plywood, i.e., no joints. It makes a realistic mountain shape by getting smaller as you go up. I've never built one, but it sounded intriguing. Perhaps someone else knows more about this?

AL

[Anonymous]

First bit of advice would be to get real familiar with the relationship between radius, grade and track seperation. The "oval" approach provides a good solution, but takes a larger (longer) "footprint". These really govern your construction if you have a limited amount of space to put the helix in.

Good construction description by prhnkp that I agee with. LAY TRACK ON ONE LEVEL, SPLICE NEXT LEVEL, LAY MORE TRACK ETC. When I built my helix, each section of subroadbed was a quarter circle (90 degrees) of 1/2" plywood. I "spliced" them together with 4" electrical box plates below the plywood, rotated 45 deg so that two corners stuck out from subroadbed (Is only one track wide). This also was very thin, to maintain clearance between levels. Holes had been drilled in the plates for the threaded rod - another good helix construction technique I reccomend for ease of adjustment.

To get a low grade (under 2%) in a relatively small area (24" radius curve) I needed to have only 3.75" from railhead to railhead so I nailed my flextrack directly to the subroadbed and use plywood and homosote outside of the helix.

I have scale drawings of the supporting framework I can send in .dxf format if you have a CAD program to read them with. You can contact me at [e-mail] if you want them. Regards, Bryan

[Anonymous]

First bit of advice would be to get real familiar with the relationship between radius, grade and track seperation. The "oval" approach provides a good solution, but takes a larger (longer) "footprint". These really govern your construction if you have a limited amount of space to put the helix in.

Good construction description by prhnkp that I agee with. LAY TRACK ON ONE LEVEL, SPLICE NEXT LEVEL, LAY MORE TRACK ETC. When I built my helix, each section of subroadbed was a quarter circle (90 degrees) of 1/2" plywood. I "spliced" them together with 4" electrical box plates below the plywood, rotated 45 deg so that two corners stuck out from subroadbed (Is only one track wide). This also was very thin, to maintain clearance between levels. Holes had been drilled in the plates for the threaded rod - another good helix construction technique I reccomend for ease of adjustment.

To get a low grade (under 2%) in a relatively small area (24" radius curve) I needed to have only 3.75" from railhead to railhead so I nailed my flextrack directly to the subroadbed and use plywood and homosote outside of the helix.

I have scale drawings of the supporting framework I can send in .dxf format if you have a CAD program to read them with. You can contact me at [e-mail] if you want them. Regards, Bryan

[Anonymous]

There is a pretty good article in the May-June issue of N-scale railroading. Regardless of your scale, it has a great basic concept you could adapt to your scale

[Anonymous]

There is a pretty good article in the May-June issue of N-scale railroading. Regardless of your scale, it has a great basic concept you could adapt to your scale

[Anonymous]

I forgot to say that I elongated the helix by cutting my donuts in half, and inserting a 18" piece of plywood between each half of the donut, making an oval helix.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to say that I elongated the helix by cutting my donuts in half, and inserting a 18" piece of plywood between each half of the donut, making an oval helix.

[Anonymous]

I built an elongated helix for my layout, using the method described by jdb22. I use 3/4" BC plywood for sub-roadbed, wityh Homabed for roadbed. I paint the Homabed on all sides with latex paint to seal it. I suggest that for the plywood, draw a donut for the sub-roadbed, with the inside radius 2 1/2" smaller than your minimum radius for your track, and the outside radius 2 1/2" larger. If you are going to double tack the helix, add the necessary spacing for between the tracks, depending on your equipment requisites. This will provide room for attaching the mounting hardware and a "safety net". Then cut through each donut from inner to outer radius, so you can separate the elevation of the ends. It's easier to lay your roadbed at this time, before putting in the helix in, a lesson I learned the hard way. I used 1/4" threaded rod with fender washers and nuts to assemble the helix. I drilled 1/4" holes opposite each other every 45 degrees in all the donuts, put a fender washer and nut on the rod under the piece of sub-roadbed and another fender washer and nut on top in each of the holes. Attach the end of your first piece to the existing sub-roadbed (I used two flat joiner plates with three screws in each to join the pieces of sub-roadbed), and then support the first donut with risers around to the other end, according to your grade. You should have threaded rod sticking up in the air from this first piece. Put a nut and then a fender washer on each rod, put next donut over the rods, and use the nuts to adjust the grade. When you have it set, put a fender washer and nut on top of the 2nd piece of subroadbed, and climb to the ceiling by repeating the process. I used a ruler and measured from the top surface of the first donut to the top of the next donut to make sure my grade was consistant and accurate. Don't forget to use a joinder plate where the ends of the donuts meet, so there's no flex. After my helix was installed, I cut 4" wide strips of thin styrene from some bulk stuff I bought at a surplus store, and screwed it to the outside and inside edge of the helix all the way around. I serves as a safety net to prevent any locomotives or cars from taking the plunge to the floor. It's flexible enough that I can bend it to cure any derail or other problems. It occurred to me after I built it, that I might have been better off using code 100, and putting in a re-railer piece of sectional track ever few feet to insure trouble free operation. As it turns out, it wasn't, and hasn't been necessary, and that portion of my layout has been in operation over 9 years. Those are my thoughts. Good luck and enjoy.

[Anonymous]

I built an elongated helix for my layout, using the method described by jdb22. I use 3/4" BC plywood for sub-roadbed, wityh Homabed for roadbed. I paint the Homabed on all sides with latex paint to seal it. I suggest that for the plywood, draw a donut for the sub-roadbed, with the inside radius 2 1/2" smaller than your minimum radius for your track, and the outside radius 2 1/2" larger. If you are going to double tack the helix, add the necessary spacing for between the tracks, depending on your equipment requisites. This will provide room for attaching the mounting hardware and a "safety net". Then cut through each donut from inner to outer radius, so you can separate the elevation of the ends. It's easier to lay your roadbed at this time, before putting in the helix in, a lesson I learned the hard way. I used 1/4" threaded rod with fender washers and nuts to assemble the helix. I drilled 1/4" holes opposite each other every 45 degrees in all the donuts, put a fender washer and nut on the rod under the piece of sub-roadbed and another fender washer and nut on top in each of the holes. Attach the end of your first piece to the existing sub-roadbed (I used two flat joiner plates with three screws in each to join the pieces of sub-roadbed), and then support the first donut with risers around to the other end, according to your grade. You should have threaded rod sticking up in the air from this first piece. Put a nut and then a fender washer on each rod, put next donut over the rods, and use the nuts to adjust the grade. When you have it set, put a fender washer and nut on top of the 2nd piece of subroadbed, and climb to the ceiling by repeating the process. I used a ruler and measured from the top surface of the first donut to the top of the next donut to make sure my grade was consistant and accurate. Don't forget to use a joinder plate where the ends of the donuts meet, so there's no flex. After my helix was installed, I cut 4" wide strips of thin styrene from some bulk stuff I bought at a surplus store, and screwed it to the outside and inside edge of the helix all the way around. I serves as a safety net to prevent any locomotives or cars from taking the plunge to the floor. It's flexible enough that I can bend it to cure any derail or other problems. It occurred to me after I built it, that I might have been better off using code 100, and putting in a re-railer piece of sectional track ever few feet to insure trouble free operation. As it turns out, it wasn't, and hasn't been necessary, and that portion of my layout has been in operation over 9 years. Those are my thoughts. Good luck and enjoy.

[Anonymous]

One or two issues ago, N-scale Magazine had a article on building a helix that, perhaps, might be applicable.