Threaded rod side brackets

HELIX

nice job on the helix & how well the loco runs...i would suggest adding some more feeder wires.

vinny...aka...bnsf6951

Power Feeds

You think that one set of feeds to each loop is enough?  Seriously?  If you are going to use DCC, you need to feed each piece of track.  Do not rely on rail joiners or even wire jumpers.  Guess how I know!?!!

Brackets

Hello Jim,

I was also admiring the bracket work.  The brackets appear to be eye bolts screwed into the spline with the rod passing through the eye.  Very clever!

Tom

Overdoing feeders

Attaching Threaded Rods to Helix

I used screw eyes to attach the threaded rod to the sides of the spline.  I used two sizes, first an Ace Hardware product, 1-3/8" long with a 1/4" eye opening and, second, a product that I bought on eBay, 1-9/16" long with a 5/8" eye opening.  The reason that I switched was that our Ace burned down in Feb 2013 and I had to find an alternate source.  I now think that the longer one with the larger eye worked better since I did not have any vertical alignment problems when building the second one.  Using the screw eyes allows the roadbed, whether it is spline or plywood, to not have to be wider to accommodate the drill through attachment of the rod.  By doing it that way, I was able to maximize the radius of the helix.  Hope that helps.

Helix

Thanks for the kind comments.

I am waiting for some electrical stuff that I ordered to finish hooking up the feeders.   Each turn is about 15-16 feet long, the track joints are all soldered, and the feeders are placed about 7-8 feet apart.  I do plan on going vertical on both ends of the helix with the power bus. There may be too many feeders but better to have too many than too few.

I will post some pictures when I finish the wiring of the helix.

John

Power Feeds

Thanks for the comments about the electrical for DCC.  That is exactly why the track joints are all soldered, and the feeders are placed about 7-8 feet apart, i.e., two sets per turn plus the entry and the exit (not yet installed at the top).

I will post some pictures when I finish the wiring of the helix.

John

Overdoing Feeders - Maybe or Maybe not

Thanks for the comments.

There are two sets of feeders for each of the two tracks on the helix spaced apart about 7-8 feet  which is about every two to three track sections plus a little.  Each turn is approximately 15-16 feet long and all of the track is soldered together.  I don't have an RMS meter but I do plan on getting one in the near future.  If I determine that there are too many feeders, then I will get rid of some of them.

I enjoy the planning and building aspects of the hobby and so I am not in a hurry to finish the layout.  Since I am retired I like to take my time and enjoy what I am doing, after all,  it has taken since April 2012 to build both of the spline helices. I had a lot of fun building them but do not plan on building any more of them.  

John

"the feeders are placed about 7-8 feet apart"

That sounds fine. N scale locos don't need a lot of current to run. I try to put in feeders every other piece of flextrack which is about 6 feet apart but I wouldn't worry if they are 7 or 8 feet apart..DaveBranum

Great idea!

" screw eyes on the outside of the helix "

   The advantage I can see for threaded rod is better hand access to the tracks to fix future problems or derailments. The radius would be the same using wooden blocks as the roadbed could be cut wider to the same radius as the outside of the metal eye bolts. The advantage of wooden blocks is once the first loop is set correctly the others don't need any adjustment, just stack and shoot the blocks and roadbed in place, installing the track as the loops rise......DaveBranum

Helix radius

"the threaded rods on the outside will allow for increased"

  The eye bolt heads are 5/8" diameter so the roadbed could just be cut 5/8 wider and the same radius would result. The roadbed outside edge would align with the outside edge of the eyebolt circle and the spacer blocks would sit on the same radius line as the threaded rods.  The way to minimize helix radius would be to use thin metal framing straps for the supports and screw them flat against the outside of the roadbed, this would only use up about 1/8 inch of radius outside the actual roadbed. The metal straps would be even harder to adjust than the threaded rods though so they would need to be screwed accurately the first try. Spacer blocks eliminate this problem entirely ....DaveBranum  

Use of the Threaded Rods to Support the Spline

Good point. 

The first helix used the 1/4" screw eyes and the second one that I just finished used the 5/8" ones. The tables that I built for the two helices were constrained to 48" wide primarily to achieve the goal of a 36" minimum aisle width.  Their length was not constrained.

The outside track radius that I settled on was 22 1/2", so with some easement into the two 18" long straight sections plus the track width, and some clearance to the outside of the spline, I felt that the maximum diameter had been achieved, especially since the outside edge of the spline was less than an inch from the outside of the table structure at that point on both the front and back of the support table. I did consider using a stiff metal/steel strapping but I really liked the adjustability of the threaded rods. 

If I had built a single track helix then I would have used the threaded rod through the spline roadbed method.

Also, when I started this project there were several comments about the size of hands and that I did not have enough room to put my hand in between the turns.  Spacer blocks would have reduced the available space somewhat as compared to the threaded rods which is why I did not opt to use them.  I think that I watched Jeff Johnston's YouTube video about building a helix at least 10 times with his use of the spacer blocks.

John

" would have reduced the available space "

  Yeah ,that's definitely an advantage of the threaded rods especially in N scale where access can get quite tight. They give a nice open appearance too. I wonder if anyone has ever used the threaded rods with pieces of plastic pipe cut to the same length and used like spacer blocks? That should eliminate the need to adjust all the nuts as the whole stack could be assembled and then tightened from the top? .......DaveBranum

Threaded Rods and PVC

Dave,

Once again great idea. I think that Easy Helix uses something like that for the helix that they sell.

Also, during the research for the project, I think that I remember seeing some use of small PVC pipe to build a helix in postings on the web from Australia (?).  Also, I found  a picture in a Yahoo or Google search where someone had used screw eyes for a plywood helix (which gave me the idea for mine) but could not find the website from where it came. 

John

The plan?

   Hi John, Maybe I missed it but do you have your track plan posted here? The helix looks well planned so I want to see the rest of the design?..DaveBranum

The Plan for the ATSF Fillmore Division

Dave,

Thanks for asking. First a little background.  From 2004-2010, I was building an N-scale version of Bruce Chubb's original Sunset Valley (see "How to Operate your Model Railroad" by Bruce Chubb, 1977) in a large room in the house.  All of the cities had been built and it was running electrically.  A big investment in buildings had been made to reflect the look and feel of the industries that he had in the various cities and towns on the Sunset Valley.  My version of the SV was called the ATSF Fillmore Division.  I have boxes of already assembled buildings that I had collected probably from 1999 so I did not want to lose that when I had to move the layout out of the main house into its own outbuilding in early 2012.

Here are three diagrams that reflect the plans for the layout that I am now building.

The first diagram shows where the freelanced ATSF Fillmore Division fits into the real world.  The real names of the cities are in parenthesis under the fictional name.  Michaelson, San Angela, Jamestown, and Elizabeth City are named after my four children.  The equivalent cites, for track layout and industries, on the Sunset Valley to my planned layout are (SV/ATSF_FD): East Fork/Jamestown, San Clemente/San Angela, Dunsmuir Summit/Elizabeth City, and Walnut Creek/Michaelson.  The plans for John's Creek will be closer to the possible combination of Morris and Holliday from Chuck Hitchcock's ATSF Argentine Division (see Model Railroad Planning, 1997).  Michaelson Junction is designed loosely from the ATSF track charts for Ottawa Junction.  Fillmore will end up being a combination of Dr. Muff's Kansas City track plan and the SV's Fillmore depending on what exactly will fit when I get around to building that part of the layout.  Detailed design of each city/town are in hand sketch form at present.  I also have a lot of Peco turnouts from the previous layout that I hope to re-use.

 

The second diagram shows the planned functional design of the layout.   The extra loop that I added to the helix will be visible and the route to get from Michaelson Jct. (Ottawa Jct.) to Michaelson (Ottawa) to Elizabeth City (Tulsa) which will be in the center on the peninsula similar to what Dunsmuir summit looked like on the SV with some additional industries (oil of course).

The third diagram shows the staging level on which I am currently building.  When I built each helix, I had to do a rough design of the interface, to include grade calculations) between the helix and the next section, both at the staging level and at the main level.