New to the forum. Last time I built a model railroad was when I was 15. I’m now 30 and got the itch again so you could say. I:m currently in an apartment and in the process of putting together a shelf stly layout that will be about 10’ by 7 ’ along two walls roughly based off the grafton and upton rr whose yard is across the street from me. The layout is going to be a point to point design as most of the 7’ section is going to have built in cabinents for my 7 year olds toys underneath. I wanted to know what I could get away with for min size for a helix down to a small staging yard under the 10’ side. more or less how wide the layout would have to be at the end and minimum radius. My engine roster is 2 sw8’s 1 gp18 and a another gp(havent decided yet either a gp9 or 15 or even another sw8 but unlikely) largest car i will have is a center beam car or 60’ ish flat every thing else is 50’ boxcars gondolas, 40’ boxes, and 2 or 3 bay hoppers. I know helixes eat money due to track needed but need more to the point to point than just moving the same cars back and forth and will help with the rr’s interchange i am hoping to model with this with CSX. Sorry for the newbie question but any help would be appreciated. Also on another note any club or home layouts in the massachusetts area looking for someone new to help operate on doesnt matter the scale just looking to get into the whole thing to keep interest and learn. Thanks again Kevin
Welcome to the forum. “Layouts” is probably the preferred place to post this particular question – You only need to post a question in one forum section – Here’s the response I posted in “General Discussion” to your post there…
“I’m considering an Ashlin Helix for my N Scale layout. For Example: Ashlin’s 2% grade helix for a 2-track design uses an inside track radius of 15”, and an outside track radius of 16.5".
Another suggested resource is, Guide to helix and staging design, an Information Station PDF-download."
Posted by “JaBear” on Mon, Dec 3 2012 7:35 PM |
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Gidday Kevin, to the forum.
Under your “Manage Profile/ Community Settings” box on the right hand side you will see the “Search Community” box. It can be very frustrating to use but can open a treasure trove of information if you’re holding your mouth right, but don’t be afraid to ask.
Here’s a couple of links to n2mopac
hi,
IMHO you seem to have sufficient length to do without a helix. On the 10 ft long leg of your benchwork you’ll need about 7 ft to get the tracks under the main level. Descending further down to staging about 6 inches under the visible part of your layout.
The maximum width you need will be about 27"; though only where you envision your turnback curve. Allowing you a 12,5" minum radius, about 3 times the length of your cars; which is a quite good value .
Smile
Paul
Kevin
I have built a couple of helix’s in N scale. The first was small with tight radius as per the Ashlin radius. The second one, in a new house, with a minimum radius of 19in. The first never really worked well and second works well. The first was 2.0% or more and the second 0.5%.
What did I learn - you have to be meticulous/exact with the radius, any out of radius track can severely affect the grade, consider using set track for the radius instead of flex track - finger room in an N scale helix is very limited - any wobble in the track (expansion contraction) will derail your trains - with a small/tight radius in the helix you will probably have to consist engines.
If you can do what you want without the helix, like a fold-up staging yard I would do that rather than the helix.
Try out as long a straight test track, more than 10feet, that you can set up at the 2% or more grade and trying running your engines up it with cars behind and see if the performance meets your expectations. That’s what I did for my second helix. By the way my second helix eats up a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of space fortunately I had that space.
Tom
Keep in mind if you have room for a helix, you have room for a turnback loop to create a continous run dogbone / waterwings layout. You could also have a layout with a helix at one end, and reverse loops at the other ends allowing for a fairly long mainline run. You could still operate it point-to-point but you could do continous running too.
Interesting! Final trackplan(s) for CR&T are closer to completion, and in a nutshell, this is a simplified overview of how each level of the CR&T is panning out.
First sorry for the putting this in the wrong area. As for the dog bone instead of the helix won’t work. Theres not much so called “mailine”. Layout is pretty much a short/branch line based of a protype that only has 16 miles of track( currently only 9 in operable condition). With the lack of depth I will have with benchwork I’d rather have a few more industries to switch and some nice scenic spots than a runaround track. I like the fold up idea think I never thought of it just do to how it would look not in use(Layout pretty much in the living room).
Thanks for the advice and welcomes though!
You might also consider, other than fold up/fold down, a portable module like n-Track or other portable modules ideas, maybe even making your entire layout portable??