Helix using fastrack

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

My wife bought me for the past 2 Christmases The Polar Express and The North Pole.

I’ve never built a layout before,what I would like to do for a christmas theme is have 2 mountains on both sides of the layout and both trains are going in the oppisite direction with a siding track on top as well as on the bottom.

My question is can I do a helix using fastrack? And are there any video’s or articles or internet information on how to do this?

Thanks

Allan

2

Allan,

There should be no problem using Fastrack in your helix. Pending the grade is suitable for your locomotives to handle (both up and down). You could use 084 or 072 track and just keep adding it as it forms the helix going up. I’m planning a large helix to move my trains from a bench layout to a shelf track that will go around a room. I will probably use 084 or 072 and add in some straight track to make it more oval shaped versus round to reduce the grade.

Jerry

3

Is there a ready made prefab system that FastTrack can be added on top of to create a helix - as opposed to cutting out intricate sections of curved plywood to tie together? What comes to mind is the string of lights mounted in plastic channels that make up an artificial Christmas tree decoration - a tree-shaped Helix. Have you seen those? It would seem that a rigid version of that sort of thing should work and not be as expensive as the helix kits I’ve seen, or as time consuming as a scratch-built helix. Is there some middle road?

4

What is your planned max. grade 3%? What is your planned height between levels? Is 5" adequate? FastTrack is how thick, from the bottom of the gravel to the top of the track?

5

Here’s a double track helix:

6

thats a nice helix. is that on your layout. i wanted one on mine but i had no idea on how to do it. plus my layout height between each level is only 7" with a total of 14" at the highest which i don’t think is adequate amount of height to have a helix or at least a nice looking one as in this picture. great work. i will have to live through you guys while i am in training.

7

A reasonable grade for a helix would require use of O-72 to O-84 curves and that means a lot of real estate, especailly if you intend to use modern scale equipment (aka the helix will be 6 feet in diameter for O-72 and will still involve a 2.5%-3% grade for 6" in elevation.

8

If you’re using Lionel’s Fastrack, I hope you have a [/b]lot[/b] of room!

You haven’t posted the dimentions of the area that is available for your helix.

Knowing the space you have available would help in determining if your layout is possible.

9

BS, I modified the small layout that was featured in CTT a few months ago in an 8 X 8 space! Is that considered a lot of room?