Making a helix???

[wickman]

Looks like I have another of many hurtles to jump over down the railroad hobbie way of life so the next task to learn... I have 4x4 feet of bench work on the right end and over 4x4 feet on the left end of the benchwork. I would like to make 2 helixes for each
end to drop the track down to 12" or more to the hidden staging yard. Are there any step by step ho to's for doing this or can I get some directions please? I included the plan for reference. The benchwork is 36" high which I'm quite happy with, and its framed with 1x4.

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I'm not sure if pic will go big so please ckick the link

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Not step by step instructions, but a discussion of a couple methods, and some links.

http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=1709&highlight=helix

 

[MasonJar]

Wickman,

If your top level is going to be 36" high, and then you go down 12" to a staging level - it will be at 24" (see, I did pay attention in math class ). But that is to say - 24" is not easy to work at. It is even too low for sitting in a chair, and sitting on the floor will a) not be much fun, and b) limit your reach. Not to mention getting underneath to wire it...

I would recommend that you move up to 36" for staging, and 48" for the main level.

Andrew

 

[wickman]

Andrew the lower area will be made and completed before I start on the upper level and will be fully user friendly with the proper track\train detection electronics so I don't plan on spending a lot of time down there plus that will be my short sons area

 

[wickman]

So the helix went out the door and something even better came up here's the bench track work you can see the red mark in the upper left corner where track begins its decent to below bench work it decends at a very nice grade of 2.7%

The entire staging yard is now 12" below the bench work this is the entire staging yard with reverse loop

This pic is the of both the upper and lower shown together

This worked so well that I think it may even be possible to do the same sort of thing running a rail down from the right lower corner stayoing above the yard coming all the way around to the lower left 4x4 section looping around it and joining back up with the yard