Model Railroad Helix Construction

Model Railroad Helix Construction by 
Ron's Trains N Things

Looks Like you've Got This

Just remember to lay and test your track in both directions before you build over it. Seems obvious, BUT how do we know these things ?

Espee over Donner

Advantage of OP's technique over Ron's

Advantage of OP's technique over Ron's:

- works for scales larger than N

- wastes less (precious) plywood

Additionally, I have seen people have trouble using Ron's technique because once they incline the roadbed their pieces no longer line up exactly vertically. There's a guy on youtube with his threaded rods all bent because nothing would line up. 

It's not large, but the helix pieces need to be a little longer when used in a spiral than they do when used flat, and if you cut them round from a flat sheet that doesn't account for that tiny extra length.

Love the OP’s approach

Despite having built a 12 segment cedar “bench” to cover a pond to keep raccoons out, I doubt I’d have thought of this approach for my upcoming helix.  It’s brilliant, especially the mortise and tension style joint and the way it will conserve plywood!

At the time, I found a couple of sources that might prove useful to save all the drafting time otherwise involved:

• Wood stave calculations (theory)
• Wood stave calculator (an actual app

I used the second source to calculate angles and my trusty little 20Volt Dewalt sliding mitre saw made it easy. It came out absolutely perfect.  I didn’t use a joint though, just glued them up Butt to Butt with a band clamp and then Routed a small channel in the bottom to make for a fine fit on the barrel below and stapled chicken wire across the opening underneath to save my fish.

I can’t say enough good things about this little saw (and their little job site table saw).  Both are masterpieces of engineering and the best power tools I have ever owned. The battery system is amazing (I love their little router too) and makes for total portability.  I will soon have the 12” dual power version of the sliding miter saw at the farm.  

Bottom side showing what the stave segment calculator came up with.

 
And here from the top with Mr. Frog aerating the goldfish. 
 
I stay in this tiny little lane house in Vancouver when I’m here and there is zero room for any kind of a workshop, so I built this cupboard with an integrated fold in tarp roof onto the side of the house.  I’ll take another picture when it’s all folded up.  There are fold down tables on each side (littered here as I am building a storage box for all my router sign template bits as the cardboard box it came in has broken down and doesn’t nearly fit everything.  I have had great luck with a bunch of Milescraft products over the years.  
The tarp roof tucks up under the cabinet roof, and the big doors fold over everything and I have a 2x4 all fitted and painted that goes over the big bolt on the metal stud and there is a hole for a padlock.  At least keeps the honest people out.  I’ve got a cubby hole inside the house to store my saws when they’re not in use.

I will definitely use the Ops approach on my helix, perhaps biscuit jointing on small refuges for the ready rod.

I'll take anyone else's

Helix Tools

    One of the things Ron suggested purchasing to help in a helix build is a digital readout level. The particular brand he suggests is the Risepro. I thought the "percent of grade" option on this tool could be useful. Price on Amazon is about $35 so I bit the bullet. Don't waste your time and money on this item. After calibrating and re-calibrating four times, the level does not give consistent readings. Sitting the level in one spot, taking a reading, then rotating the tool 180 degrees in the exact same spot gives a new and different reading. There may be other brands out there that will work great, but NOT this one.

    E. V. is right. The sloping portion on the helix "grows " a tat bit as compared to the flat position. In my case this extra length was not much more than a 16th of an inch. To account for this, I came in 1 3/4 inch from the edge of my segments to locate the rod hole (centered end to end of segment). However I drilled a 7/16 hole shifted about an 8th of an inch on either side of the hole location going in the long direction. This gave me a sort of slot to account for any deviation. With 5/16 diameter rod I think I can keep the rods perpendicular. By using a standard washer along with a 2 inch diameter fender washer, the small slot is not a problem but a help. Those rods going all over the place drive me nuts. My work may not be right, but I try hard to make it look good. 

    For me I did not want those "ears" sticking out all around my helix. For one, my location was not really suited for this and the main reason is I will have some track work on the other two faces away from the wall. I believe I will be able to attach some covering to my flat surfaces to serve as backdrop.

    This is my first helix build so I am trying hard to only have to do this one time and have something that functions as planned. More progress photos later.

    Thanks to all who have replied to my post......John

I agree

9 times out of 10 things have been re-done over and over again. I do not watch Ron’s videos,,but I have a feeling they are aimed at the less skillful and less knowledgeable people in the hobby. I made the mistake of wasting about 15 minutes of my life span watching one of his vids awhile back,,I kept saying “nope”, “ that way does not work for me. A lot of the video I was just shaking my head. To each their own. I don’t care for his videos. I would rather bang my head against a brick, than watch his content.

More photos.

It has been a bit since my last post. I was off the railroad and on to some other projects for a couple of weeks. But I have some progress photos. All the helix segment pieces are in. I have some wiring and a few pieces of track to lay but hope to finish the basic helix build by next Monday. Then start bench work framing for the staging and main levels. I have hooked up my DCS 51 to the tracks and ran a S2 switcher with a boxcar around the track, tested turnouts and with a little tweeking and shimming, have things looking and running well. The propane tank and its stack of lumber will be gone in a couple of days. I have had it supporting the lead to my staging tracks just because it was handy. How about those Kemtron dual coil switch machines? I have about 20 of these that are brand new and they work very well with a CDU and the Peco turnouts with their springs. I also have a point position Indicator that, working with the CDU,  operates LEDS on my control panel with the momentary toggles to throw turnouts. For my very first helix build ever ( and working alone ) I am pretty satisfied with the results. Well you can check out the photos for yourselves. Thanks for looking....John