Rt side of helix, far right track through tunnel gos around the helix as the outer around the room track, also used for hidden stageing. Second track accross black girder bridge is the out side loop of my double track helix, track on left through double truss bridge is the inner loop of the round the room layout.
Lf side of Helix, lower track inters on this side, then winds it way up, around the mountain (towards the Pass car) and around the room desending down the helix on the outside track after crossing the keddie wye trestle. This is my first attempt at bridge buildeng, will finnish it later.
The Feather River bends around the scenery so that you cant see where it gos. Canyou wall is Bragadon geodesic scenery, went halve on purchasing the molds with a friend, came out pretty decent, the color is better then the pics, not bragging mind you…LOL
Just threw a few wal mart tractors on to see how they will work, wrong decade for my layout, may go my friends layout.
jwar -quite impressive. I am contemplating a helix on my new layout. I like the way you incorporated it into your scenery. I all ways figured I would expose parts of the run so you could see the trains run in sections. I like your method and it gives my idea more substance and not just a pipe dream. Love to see more pics of the detail. Terry
That looks great !! I’m just planning out the layout for my new basement (and house) and I was thinking of using a helix very much like what you did. I’m glad to see it worked out so well on your layout, gives me hope !![:)]
I have been looking for construction equipment for some flat car loads. How close to HO scale is the equipment? I may be off to Wally-World to get some.
The helix width is 56 in with a center hole of 49. I foget the grade but 2.79 and 2.6 I think. regardless I can pull thirty cars up with one engine.
The key to a helix is a good foundation under the first wrap, I test a retest track before I built the second tier, I dont use cork to keep the grade lower,
Yes the Equepment is HO scale, D5 dozer, 950G loader 315 shovel, and a 168H grader that articulates behind the cab.$6.00 a pop. O yeah they have cat equipment in N scale too. The top picture has an N scale cat by the single green tree on the white area on top of the helix, it will be cutting a fire line road someday.
