Hidden Staging

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi,

I have modules that incorporate module building and L grider construction. I would like to build hidden staging underneath. I am not sure how I would construct the 2% grade going down to the staging area and up. Could someone show me pictures how they achieved this or written text. I have only seen articles about building helixs.

Thanks

chris

2

The grade down to staging must be manageable to the locomotives for what they have to bring up from ‘the dungeon’. If they won’t be bringing entire trains up with them, then the grade limit would be determined by any one of the engines you hope/intend to run up and down it by itself.

The access must, of course be part of the layout surface fully scenicked. You can make a portal through a wall adjacent to the layout and place your staging yard next door, or you must have something like a tunnel portal into a thin mountain that hides the commencement of the grade.

You can do this by switchbacks, a series of turns on a single grade, or a single turn helix, the latter of which I did. I made it look like an interchange, where one of the tracks entered a portal. In reality, it was a separate single turn helix below a helix just above it that gave me height on the layout-proper. I was able to use the same framework, but stack to separate helices, one gaining height on to another part of the layout and the one below allowing descent to my staging.

You need a decent ability with 3-D conceptialization. Draw up what you absolutely must have for surface trackage, and then look for a place, maybe a spur near an interchange, or just a track that seems to run into a portal on a mountain. That’s about the best advice I can give.

Technically, from a practical standpoint, there is one other nifty possibility. Place a large industry building, a workshop or something, at what appears to be an industrial track with the track entering the building for hopper filling. Instead of a backstop, you could construct the staging grade’s beginning inside the building. Who is to know, except when an entire train enters into, or emerges from, the building, that it is really your staging access? Double duty- staging and an industry.

3

There are two options of course, 1) Helix, and 2) No-lix.

A helix requires a “lobe” more than 2x the radius of the curve used. In HO I would recommend nothing smaller than 24-inch curve radii, and of course, broader curves are always better. Assuming a minimum of 24-inch curve, it would consume at least 50-inches out from the wall to spiral down to a hidden staging.

Factors to consider:

  • the tighter the radius, the smaller the clearance between levels in the helix. To calculate circumference = 2 x Pi x R. By way of example if your helix has a thickness of 1 inch and you need a clearance of 3-inches, you’d need to drop 4-inches for each turn. To maintain a grade of 2% you’d have to have a radius of 32-inches. Thats how the math works out. If you needed a greater drop per turn to have more clearance inside the helix, it would either require a greater grade or larger radius or both.

The No-lix option may or may not demand a wide space but takes a long run which depends on the vertical distance which needs to be decended. I chose a minimal clearance in order to keep my grade from getting very steep, and have a clearance of 8 inches over the tracks for trains - so I needed to decend 9-inches at a max grade of 2.9%.

4

If you have enough running length, this can be a simple descending ramp. I think what you might be asking is how to work this around the joist of L-girder benchwork. Ideally, one builds the benchwork so that the joists are below the staging level, and then staging and visible layout may all be supported with risers above the same joists, with a ramp smoothly climbing in between.

But if your visible benchwork is already built, it’s trickier. In that case, some have cut out slots in the joists and added other supports so that the ramp may drop down.

If the benchwork hasn’t been built yet, consider the joists the “foundation”, and then support everything from that – shorter risers for staging and ramps, longer risers to hold the visible layout higher.