They aren’t as bad as they look to build, actually it was fun. I did mine using 2 layers of 3/8" plywood, for a 3/4" roadbed. Nice for O, but overkill for HO. The top layer is BC, and the bottom layer is CDX. I didn’t cut curves, but rather trapazoidal segments, and overlapped them, gluing them and using screws as temporary clamps as I went. Simple spacers keep the grade constant.
The math worked out perfectly, gaining 8" per turn. The hidden yard is 24" from the floor, the first level of the railroad is 42", and the upper level is 72". The outer track comes off the helix at 810 degrees of revolution, 1.25 circles. The inner track continues to climb to 2160 degrees, or 6 full circles, but starts to swing out and flatten out in the last 1/4 turn. This keeps it from over shooting the correct final height.
Because this thing is so big, I decided to try something a little different. That silver pipe running from floor to ceiling is a piece of 1/2" conduit which served as my compass center during the entire construction process. The arm is made up of an eye screw, a couple of pieces of wood, and a piece of drilled metal strapping.
I see you have your staging very low, at 2 feet high. As I try to design my layout, it’s looking more and more like the only way I can have sufficient staging is to put it BELOW the lower level, which would be about the same - staging at 2 feet from the floor. How is this working out for you?
I do several different things. The room is a controlled environment (basement, with a carpet floor, drop ceiling, dehumidifier and a separate HVAC system). I don’t do any cutting or construction in the layout room (separate workshop). All this accomplishes is a reduced amount of dust and buildup on the rails and wheels. I have several track cleaning cars, some with abrasive pads and another with a cleaning solution (TTX clean machine). I only have two areas on the layout that are hard to reach. One is ramp down to staging behind a steel mill and the other is over a 3’ reach to the back tracks (just out of the helix). The helix is open in the middle and I can reach the rest of the tracks.
So I run my cleaning train to keep the build up of dust and grime off the rails. If I do have a problem in a particular area, the bright boy or blocks of wood come out to give the rails a good scrubbing. So far I haven’t had too many problems. I also put feeder wires everywhere.
Good grief, that thing is HUGE! My N-scale layout and an operator could fit inside that helix. That’s almost big enough to drive a Miata up the helix ;).
