This is my attempt to maximize track length in a small room. In the picture I have 3 decks with 6 sides + a staging yard. Everything connected with a helix. The helix can be constructed so you can travel between decks like a elevator or be forced to run every bit of track on the deck before entering the next deck. The train travel the same way 2 times but on different sides of the backdrop before entering the helix and the next deck. Inside the backdrop there is place for cables for anything you want. No more cables hanging under the layout. I need help to take this idea futher.
It will maximize track but are you sure you want to go three deck? It seems that the area you want to model has high mountains etc, so why not have the large mountains? I’d say go 2 deck, even if that means more selective compression.
If I understand your diagram, there seems to be track that you can’t reach when the train is on the center deck, because it’s sandwiched between the upper and lower with a backdrop along one edge. How are you going to reach into there if you have a derailment?
I’m not really sure if I understand you correctly. The idea is to place the benchwork not along the side of the wall, place it out on the floor so you can reach from both sides, no problem at all. Look at the ‘snake’ picture and you know what I mean.
I’ve been researching the same concept, as yet I have not found a plan for a helix, if you have one please send me a link or e-mail, this is what I have found so far:
ah, I think I was a bit confused. Are you planning this for yourself or was this an idea that just came up? In the general sense, yes, its a good idea, very straight forward. One of the things I like most about back to back is that if you need two junctions, just locate them on opposite sides, and voila, you run the line through the backdrop. However, the wires in the backdrop are the best idea. but, then the backdrop sides better be made removable.
Construction plan… I’d like to see a plan of a helix before I start cutting timber, I started doing more research on the helix concept this week, and so far I hav’nt found a step by step construction plan, I want to avoid building it and then having problems with access or derailments…
Have you built a helix before?? if not do you have a plan? or do you intend to build as you go. In my short time in research I have already come accross a few different methods in support and timber used, but no plan??
The idea is good for situations where an around the wall layout is not suitable. But you’ll get a longer run with an around the wall layout. For example let us say that your layout uses a 28" minimum radius. Your layout is then 5 ft wide with an average 2.5 ft scene on either side. If your room is say a single car garage of 10x20 ft, then your layout is 16ft long with a 2ft aisle on the ends and 2.5ft aisle on the sides. Mainline track length on each level outside of the helix area is 17 ft of tangent (8.5 on each side) plus 7 ft of curve at the non helix end for a total length of 24 ft per level. If you do an around the wall layout using the same radius with the helix area in a corner you have a center aisle of 5x15 ft (minus a little where the helix is). Unlike the island setup you’ll most likely have the mainline an average of 1 ft from the edge next to the wall. This gives a length per level outside the helix of 29 ft of tangent (11.5 + 3 + 13 + 1.5) plus 11 ft for the three corner curves for a total of 40 ft per level. This means it takes roughly 3 levels in the island layout to equal 2 levels of around the wall - 72ft to 80ft. So, unless you need to keep the walls free, an around the walls is the way to go if you want to maximize the mainline in a given area.
Enjoy
Paul
I’m building a smaller layout right now. And I have a dream to build a much larger one in the future. So this is just ideas that pops up and it’s always great to get feedback.
No, I have never build a helix. But I have learned that big radius and no more then 2% grade is the way to go. That’s about what I know about helix construction right now.
Around the wall is great, but for me the helix does have an advantage of having trains come and go through a shelf layout, that can be interchanged, Im time poor and dont have time to add all the detail to an around the room layout…
Your smaller layout your building now, is it part of the big plan or wil you start from scratch?? your smaller layout could follow the line of the “N TRACK” system and be added to the “dream helix concept”
Once I get started I’ll post pics of the construction, but if you start before me, I wanna see pics.
I will start from scratch with the new one, but it’s many years from now. The bigger one will be more like a scale model of the D&RGW 1950-60. The smaller that I’m working on right now is a training layout, sort of. I have already learned one importent thing. I HATE SOLID WIRES [:D] So I will NEVER use that again.
My train room is a hobby area for the whole family, there is a work bench the full length of one wall and an open entrance way 5 feet wide on another wall. That and my wife not wanting anything attached to the wall prevents me from building an around the wall layout. My overall plan has changed twice since I started but since I am building the layout in sections 2 feet deep and of varying lengths I have not had to abandon any of the work I have done so far. At some point I may want to abandon some of it as this is my first layout and hopefully my craftsmanship will improve.
I’m having doubts about the heights. How high will the decks be? It seems to me that on a 3 deck layout, you’d either have a lower deck you’d have to bend down to see, or an upper deck that would require some elevation to see. Am I right in thinking this?
Matthew
