Details

Need some drawing details. Maybe some media storage for the media room. Good start after years of planning. 

Crossing the great divide

I finally got around to getting rolling on extending the layout.  When we built our house we had the builder put two openings from the future train room into the media room under the garage.  These openings have been beckoning me for 10 years to get the show on the road.  I built the helix frame last year and it has lurked in the basement while I built and painted freight cars and locomotives.  Time to give them somewhere to go beyond the lower level of the layout.

I maybe guilty of overplanning the passage through the cement wall as I have bounced around lots of ideas.  Finally it was pretty simple.  Attach one end of a fitted 1/4" piece of plywood to the existing layout and cut it to fit the helix.  The plywood was shimmed on the layout end to sit flush with the surface of the layout plywood, and the other end will be leveled to have no grade going into the helix.  

I plan to have two pieces of 3' flextrack through the opening for the mainline and siding to (hopefully) minimize the potential for derailments and other issues in what will be a more difficult area to reach when the helix is installed.  Off we go.  

view into the media room where the helix will be

 view from media room to train room.  I've got a ready made tunnel through 12" of concrete.  

Fitted plywood.  I decided it was way easier to notch the plywood to fit around some bumps in the concrete than remove the concrete.  The track will still fit easily through this section.  

Marc Simpson

Uncanny...

Your helix base immediately struck me as looking eerily familiar, although made from a different material. 

Randy

51 weeks

51 weeks have lapsed. What is the progress on this project?

I have a helix to build, so

I have a helix to build, so I'm interested in following.  I am considering the gator board helix demonstrated in a video last year.

Gator-board helix

I'd keep that idea in the forefront.  I saw his HO/N doubled demo helixs at Timonium; they just work, nothing fancy or complex about them.  The hardest thing to do is build the table it'll sit on, from the looks of it.

I'm considering one as a portable modular system adapter (Free-mo / NECHS 50"<> NMRA 40") instead of 16-some feet of "no-lix" ramps.  If we ever have shows again.  Argh.  Chin up, eyes front, Keep Calm...  

Tim B.

Capitol Free-mo / Western Reserve Speed-mo

Seriously considering the Gatorboard helix

I saw it demonstrated at Timonium as well, and did speak to the guy.  My wife was with me and liked it too. The Gator-board helixes look very attractive.  The nice thing is there is a wide range of radius available and gradients, so you can pretty much order one that fits your need and assemble it.  I think I could make one myself out of wood, but I'm seriously considering the Gator-board.  It is a bit spendy, but could be worth it.

I've already got the benchwork for the helix area.  It just needs a platform for it to sit on.

water is the problem

When I was prepping to put the helix base in back in March I found what  looked like an old water leak - bubbled gyproc (wallboard) in the corner I was going to put the helix in, along with bubbled paint on the baseboard.  Then the Covid lockdown hit so the helix has sat while I try to figure out what to do.  And honestly I got sidetracked with 500 other things along the way so I should probably put it back on the to do list.  

The leak doesn't seem to be happening anymore but I need to open the wall up to see what is going on.  Not really looking forward to that.