Holy Smokes!

It's like a layout unto itself!  Incredible craftsmanship.  Very professionally built in every aspect of the build. 

Man... I need a bigger basement. 

Helix

Whoa, ingenious work on that helix.  I could hardly put two boards together square if my life depended on it, so upscale benchwork is something that seriously intimidates me.  You make it look easy, and there's some great tips that can be used by anyone considering going multilevel with their layout.

Jon R.

Couple of questions

One: This may seem dumb, but the 3/4" X 8" wood pieces are ripped plywood strips?

Two: Is there a better picture of the heat sink installation? I had no idea this could/would happen in a helix!

Um...

1. Yes, plywood is more stable/stronger than dimensional lumber.

2.I think that was a joke, based on the appearance of the joists radiating out from the helix table... I'd actually like to see some wider angle photos of it too, though.

Another way ?

As a part time wood worker I might add another way to join your helix segments. I have used a "Kreg Jig" to join wood / ply-wood of all shapes / sizes. Look at kregtool.com , it is a very easy to use tool. This is not criticism, just thinking there might be another way because I use this tool a lot and I don't have a biscuit tool.

Keep up the great work !

Joel B.

Couple of questions

1. Jeff is right. The 8'' plywood joists are were ripped from a 4x8 sheet on my table saw. If you don't have a table saw or a friend with one, a lumber yard will do this for you at a nominal charge.

2. The heat sink was indeed a joke. After installing the joists I though it looked like one of those crazy heat-sinks that get installed on modern, high power/high heat computer CPU chips. In real operation the major source of heat in the train room is the BS thrown around by the operators and nothing the trains are doing. Hint: What you read in the South Jackson Gazette (and especially something Horace Fithers sez) is likely to be 100% USDA prime malarkey and is for entertainment purposes only. Sorry for any confusion (unless you were going along with the concept to pull my chain in which case Horace may be around to have a 'lil chat widya).

Cheers,

Charlie

Optical Detector

I am an O Gauger, and besides reading two O Gauge magazines, I also read this online magazine and Model Railroader.  I get a lot of great ideas from both of them, so keep up the good work.

While reading  Part 2 - Finishing the helix . . . . . , I read your idea for an Optical Detector.  It seems to me that this setup could be used for tripping all kinds of things along a track as the trains go by.  Your idea is a lot better than the optical boxes that can be set along side of the track to do the same job. 

Am I correct, or off base?  I'll be looking forward to reading more on this type of Detector.

Sunndowner

Charlie, I've been a big

Charlie,

I've been a big fan of the South Jackson Gazette for years.  Even got me one of them free subscriptions back in 0h-Fourteen  (btw, I'm still waiting  for access to the place where I can watch them spiders doing their thing that ya promised came with the free subscription), but I gotta admit old Horace snookered me this time.  And just when I thought Horace had come up with a cheaper way to wash both my dishes and Old Yeller.  (Old Yeller's mah wife when she's mad at me - which is most of the time - and not my dog.  The dog's named "Blue" cuz his sink isn't heated at all)....

(PS:  That really is some nice work you done.  Thought I should mention that, as well.  Now, where the heck is that web site ya promised me access to, anyway?)

Very Comprehensive

I enjoyed following along even though I have neither the room or any plans to build a helix. Very well detailed article Charlie.

Optical Detectors

I hope you plan on sharing the construction of the optical detectors (schematics, parts list, etc...)!

Optical detectors

I'll be sharing my optical detector circuitry when I get it installed and working. Right now, all I have is a prototype breadboard of the circuit and a piece of test track with a LED and photo transistor installed.

It may prove to NOT be suitable for an open air installation due to room light triggering a false occupancy indication, but I have some ideas to deal with that. However, my optical detectors will be mounted in subterranean locations -- room light shouldn't be an issue.

I'm a bit out on a limb with these detectors. I think they'll work, but I'll have to see.

Charlie

Block Detection

I curious to see how well your optical detectors will work as well Charlie. 

However if I may I broached this subject matter with a couple of club members when discussing an animated roll up door for a specific idea I had in mind ( whenever I get around to building it of course!).  I queried them about the use of using photocells to activate the circuit that would trigger the mechanism to open the door and they both advised me to use a block detector instead.  They advised that the block detection unit would be more reliable and easier to set up and install. 

That said, my electronics know how is still in its infancy so I'm all ears and eyes when it comes to suggestions or thoughts.  I am also looking forward to your next installment to see how well this method works for you.

My Experience with a Helix

Charlie,

I have really enjoyed the coverage of building your Helix (and the rest of your layout for that matter) and thought I would give you some thoughts on my experience on building my Helix quite a few years back in Australia.

My helix was 5 levels, single track on a 34" radius. It used lots of plywood and I was lucky enough to have a source of free 5/16" thick plywood and we decided to use this. This was not thick enough so we laminated 2 layers to give us a 5/8" thick roadbed. The sheets of ply where only about 3' X 4' so it took a lot of sheets of ply to get enough sections to build the whole thing? Wore out several jigsaw blades!

My frame work was built with 1" x 6" pine built in an Octagonal shape with the center being open, basically an x shape with the angles filled in with another piece with the ends cut at a 45 degree angle. I was going to use the open center are for a dispatch panel although this never actually eventuated. I always thought this section of benchwork was huge until I saw your monster!

One of the reasons I used the laminated roadbed was that I needed a smooth bottm on it to allow me to mount an inverted piece of rail on the bottom of the roadbed to act as a "catenary" for my PRR electric locomotives. To accomplish this we used 1/4" self tapping screws with a section of code 100 rail soldered to this screw with the head of the rail in the slot. 

Assembling this took plenty of head scratching and brain storming! To laminate the pieces without having to wait for glue to dry we used hot glue. We had a three man team going to do this, 2 with glue guns and 1 to lay the plywood on top. We assembled all the roadbed and then payed the track afterwards. which was not as hard as it sounds. When we started we left all the ply at the top of the threaded roads and lowered them down as we layed the track and installed the "catenary".

One mistake I made was to drill 5/16" the holes for the 1/4" threaded rods through all 5 layers of the ply while it was laying flat. When we raised the ply the holes "rotated" with relation to each other wwith the result the rods were not vertical! so we had to pull out all the rods and redrill all the wholes with a 1/2" bit which left enough slop for the rods to be vertical. We had to use large fender washers to cover these holes and spread the load. I like charlies ide of spinning the rod to run the nuts onto the rods. I did it by hand!

Once the thing was assembled we had a great time running cars down the grade by gravity! this was a good way of checking the grade was continuous as the cars would speed up or slow down with variations in it. We ran several 40 car hopper trains up and down to test it. It looked great.

Unfortunately this is about as far as the layout progressed as I started an model train import business and needed the layout room for my "Warehouse" so the layout had to go! Sob!!

I swapped the Helix to a friend for a brass Alco C636 Demonstrator. As far as I know the Helix still exists in his layout.

Graeme Nitz

A SPF Australian Living in Tulsa OK

Love it

Index (Ron Goodwin)

"Would be great to have a link in the article back to the previous article and/or a "look ahead" to the final product if it is done. Maybe the drawings. I can't wait to see the finished product."

If you go to the "Magazine" drop down menu at the top of the page, the forth item down is labeled "Index (Ron Goodwin)"  Just type in Helix or the actual title of the article and the index will bring up all article as well as threads dealing with the subject.