Here are some progress photos of my “retirement project layout”. It is N scale. Once the staging on the lowest level is operating well, a moderate sized yard with a roundhouse and turntable will go in, 3” above the staging, on the lower level.
The control panels for the staging yards use Barrett Hill touch toggles, which I highly recommend. Their products and customer service are both excellent. After I figure out how to generate track diagrams on Power Point, the hand drawn track diagrams will be replaced with more professional looking diagrams.
Hoping to live long enough to finish the layout! In the meanwhile, having lots of fun building.
I couldn’t agree more with what Paul said about Berrett Hill/Touch Toggles. I have converted 7 “analog” panels to Touch Toggles and couldn’t be happier with the results. Plus, regarding customer service, owner Kevin Hunter always answers his phone and is a pleasure to speak with. I’m not affiliated in any way with TT , just a very satisfied long term customer.
Hi, Ralph! The helix was the first part of the layout to be built. The top deck was planned with a continuous loop 2-1/2 scale miles long, so I could run trains while I built the rest of the layout.
The helix is a single track, with 24” radius. Three inches of separation per loop keeps the grade at 2%. I drew a full size paper template of the helix loop and built one layer at a time by fully overlapping and gluing 1/4” plywood wedges (12 per loop), which gave me a 1/2” roadbed. See the attached photos.
After the first layer was installed and the grades were accurate, subsequent layers were added on top of 2-1/2” blocks. Some care had to be taken to keep the stacks straight, but the vertical 2x2s that are part of the bench work helped with that.
The helix has four staging loops on the top, which helps to justify the big footprint.
Nice work, Paul! The double deck looks like you’ll be able to get a good length mainline run in. I am also curious on the setting. It looks like Intermountain West. Also, nice choice on the track lighting, I went a similar route in my layout room.