Laying Rail in my Helix, hints/suggestions

[Greg@mnrr]

Willie: You make good point about the possibility of expansion and contraction of the rails. Another concern I would have is the plywood itself having some movement with changes in humidity and temperature, but lapping of joints in the sub road road should handle any movement.

With one of previous layouts I experienced movement in the sub-roadbed which was 1/2 inch plywood. The problems occurred at the locations I had bridges and the plywood sub-roadbed (cookie cutter) merely ended. The movement pushed the tracks upwards.

My current layout is cookie cutter in spots and at the gaps in the sub-roadbed I added marine plywood plates that were screwed and glued to the sub-roadbed. In several places I doubled up on the plates with the longest length of plate directly under the sub-roadbed.

Greg

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Brian -- YOU have done a masterful creation in the methods of construction.
I salute your execution!

 

[beiland]

Very nice work Brian. Does soldering every joint give you any concerns about heat expansion inside that metal structure in the Florida sun?

Yes it does give me some concerns. I'll be watching it carefully as things heat up this summer.

Fortunately my helix shed only sees a few hours of direct direct sunlight during the day. Trees and the carport help protect it at early and late hours. I also put a nice big thick piece of foam insulation in the roof.

I coated that masonite roadbed with at least 3 coats of various paints/sealants in hopes of preventing it undergoing significant expansion/contraction. I think the roadbeds under our tracks are more at fault with perceived track expansion.

 

[beiland]

Safety Catchment

Somewhere I recall seeing some sort of a safety line/wire/string being rigged up. Seems as though it was pretty simple/cheap/effective.


Does anyone know where that reference might be??


What probably concerns me most is the long trains falling to the inside of the inner curve should the train stall out, then need to restart while in the helix. I once had a very bad experience with a brand new BLI articulated loco that was pulling a long string of cars around a tight turn on my old layout. When I went to restart the train I put too much power to it and the string of cars pulled the loco off the tracks onto a concrete floor. I was devastated, but fortunately the damage was not as bad as I expected.

 

[santafewillie]

I think the roadbeds under our tracks are more at fault with perceived track expansion.

You are quite correct in that regard.

 

[beiland]

Yellow Mason String


I found one of those references I had seen,....

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17863

It has a "DOT approved guardrail" consisting of a single yellow stretched nylon mason string to keep the trains off the floor (It works quite well).

I went through all the various options for a safety rail system. Perhaps ripped masonite strips, narrow pieces of plexy glass, some type of metal strips, but they all were expensive, hard to install and not easily removable for doing maintenance or for re-railing rolling stock. The string costs about $4.00 for a roll and I used 2" pan head sheet metal screws for uprights. I also used small screw eyelets to run between the wood uprights. The "railing" height is about 1-1/8" and it does have a learning curve on getting it really tight and keeping it that way while you tie it. Get out your Boy Scout handbook on knot tying! I figure the whole railing for an 8 tier helix cost me less than $10. I did some trials on how effective the railing is at keeping trains off the floor and I literally could not get a car to jump it! They just bounced off and stayed on the helix.
Jim Leighty

 

[beiland]

Cantilevered Roadbed & maybe Plywood Roadbed


There is something positive to say about cantilevered roadbed in the helix. It makes it very easy to get to derailments, clean the track, etc. And it does not require excessive height clearances between levels. Have a look here at my AutoMax car in my helix,...(and I believe the tallest car on the market in HO)....

My roadbed-to-roadbed clearance height is 4”, so I lose 1/4” due to thickness of roadbed, and about the thickness of a nickle coin for the thickness of the L-bracket supporting the roadbed. Still plenty of room.


If I were to have used 1/2” plywood for my helix roadbed, and those same L-brackets I would still have plenty of room. And I could have used that same thickness of metal (of the L-brackets) to join the quarter circle sections of plywood roadbed together,...no additional thickness and no complicated biscuit cuts, etc.

 

[beiland]

Safety String Brackets

Get some more "L" brackets, and mount them upside down to the subroadbed. Run your string through the top hole in the bracket and on to the next bracket.​

Sort of like these,...one leg glued to underside at outer edge of roadbed, and other leg sticking up. I think they would be tall enough.
http://Wideskall 1.5" inch Corner Brace Angle Repair Bracket




Brian

 

[beiland]

Bungee Cord, Bungee Flat-strap Safety Devices


An idea popped into my head yesterday evening as I was closing up work on the helix. Why not some sort of vertical 'strapping' down the inner edges of the helix roadbeds , at set distances around the perimeter,...maybe some sort of bungee cord or bungee strap? Might not even have to be 'bungee', but just fabric strapping?


They might not require attachment at each level, but rather just at the top and bottom,...perhaps just easy clip on at one end. They could then be all unclipped when desiring to do a track cleaning exercise.


Might be cheaper and less installation hassle than those metal mini brackets.


Ideas...suggestions??

 

[beiland]

Last Bridge built & installed

Took the day off yesterday (mother's day) and celebrated with brunch for a local mother/neighbor.


The previous 2-3 days were spent working on my 'used door' that will allow for a viewing window into my helix, AND building the last of my bridges between the shed's interior and the helix structure. Here is that top loop of track just 'hanging out' that needed a bridge,..

I had been waiting for a 6" channel piece of alum to show up at my metal scrap yard, but that didn't seem to be happening. So I paid a visit to the retailer to see if he might have some 'cut offs'. He did, but only in the 5" & 7" widths, which I never knew existed. I bought a piece of 7" channel as I needed to make a considerable turn in that section of track in order to aim towards the side of the shed as it entered the room. Even at that width I still had to fashion the bridge in two pieces to accommodate my curve in the broadest manner.


I decided to bond the two sections of alum channel with epoxy and epoxied backing plates. At first I was very satisfied with the epoxy idea, but upon a little twisting, etc to get the bridge into place it BROKE apart. Wow, I never realized that epoxy was that brittle ! ...back to the drawing board. I had to clean all of that epoxy remnants off, and prep the surface for good old reliable polyurethane. Finally got it all glued back together, let it set up overnight, and added a few screws for good measure.

Lined the bottom of the alum channel with my 'vinyl-flooring samples' for both leveling adjustments at the helix end, and noise reduction.

 

[beiland]

I had written previously,...

Got a little delayed this past weekend with some house projects, and a trip to the west to buy a glass paneled storm door for my helix structure. If you recall my older neighbor had said he would like to view into the helix innards without having to duck under to get inside. And I was going to build some sort of access door to get at the 3 way staging turnout. So this door is going to solve both of those problems,...just have to do some custom cutting and framing...

Fit in here and opens out to the left,..

That door turned out to be a bigger project that I first thought. First I had to remove all the trim around the edges as I was going to make it open in the opposite direction than it was originally built for. I was in for a SURPRISE when I removed that trim !! Turns out I had some carpenter ants in there feeding on the wood core. I was just about ready to trash this door, and start anew. But it appears as though they all came out for the party, and I promptly got my ant spray and sent them all to ant heaven.


Removed all trim so I could also cut the door down shorter,...cut about 9 inches off so it would fit under my new rain gutter. Patched over a few holes with old alum street signs material I had gotten long ago at my metal scrap yard. Then let everything air out and dry out for a few days before proceeding with cutting and reinstalling the edge trims and hinge trims.


This afternoon I set of my framing for the door and installed the door with its hinge. Still have to finishing up with remaining framing of the door, but this is enough for now.

There will be glass panels in that open space, and likely blocked out in the lower non-helix areas. And likely I'll have simply slide bolt latch as I'm not worried about and thief of trains,...as none will be left in the helix area after running trains.

 

[beiland]

Bungee Cord, Bungee Flat-strap Safety Devices


An idea popped into my head yesterday evening as I was closing up work on the helix. Why not some sort of vertical 'strapping' down the inner edges of the helix roadbeds , at set distances around the perimeter,...maybe some sort of bungee cord or bungee strap? Might not even have to be 'bungee', but just fabric strapping?


They might not require attachment at each level, but rather just at the top and bottom,...perhaps just easy clip on at one end. They could then be all unclipped when desiring to do a track cleaning exercise.


Might be cheaper and less installation hassle than those metal mini brackets.


Ideas...suggestions??

I was out visiting a few hardware stores the last few day, and a Hobby Lobby,...walking the aisles looking for ideas. I'm particularly attracted to the use of Velcro type products and flat fiber/nylon belts. I've used some of these products in other manners before and been pleasantly surprised with their versatility,...particularly the HD commercial 'mushroom' style velcros.


So this evening I just very quickly put together a few ideas,...and took a few photos until my camera's batteries gave up on me,...under recharge now.


I found two brackets that I feel might be worthwhile. They are both 1.5" long on their legs. That 1.5 inches seems to be plenty long for resisting trains going over the edge.

So basically I was thinking of gluing those brackets onto the roadbed of the very top loop of the helix, then running a nylon cord around the perimeter of those fixtures, threaded thru the top hole of those brackets.


Or perhaps we could have a loop of this nice elastic flat 'rope' I found at Hobby Lobby ,...

It was very reasonable price, robust, and would not require additional securing other than its natural elasticity.


The outer face of the metal bracket might also be used to glue a piece of velco onto. That velcro could be the attachment of a vertical strip of flat ribbon material that would drop down to the bottom loops of the helix to prevent derails on those lower loops. Those protection straps could easily be released via their velcro connections at their bottom for track cleaning etc

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Inside my Saxeville tunnel, I used strips of poster cardboard cut to approximately two inches wide and the length of the board (22 inches) and stapled them to the sides of the plywood sub-roadbed to prevent any mishaps. Its easy to remove a section for maintenance or any other reason.

A very inexpensive way to prevent value locomotives and rolling stock from falling to the floor.

Greg

 

[beiland]

That very hard board masonite I used to build the roadbed does not like 'staples' and the like. Thats one of the reasons I was thinking of some sort of 'removable velcro type attachment,...with one side of the velcro glued onto the masonite.

Yesterday I found this,..

Packing Material Strips
Yesterday I was doing some reorganizing of my 2 outdoor sheds and ran across this item,....its a strip of some sort of foam that the house moving stores (U-haul, etc) sell for wrapping up glasses etc when someone is making a move, ...about 6" wide,....

Its very light weight, relatively strong, and non-stretchy. Perhaps attach some vecro type end fittings for vertical strips,..

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Brian -- how much distance is there between the actual rail and the edge of the masonite?
I would think that you only need a "fence" of - say - one inch in height above the railhead to prevent something falling into the pit; am I wrong on this?