Llamberg Railway

[WIMorrison]

Ports are no longer a limitation as you can connect to monitors/projectors/TV via TCP (LAN or WiFi) - much easier and a lot less cabling!

 

There are lots of solutions out there these days, many of which are free - or already built into what you already have

 

[Andymsa]

Have roughly done the first turn of the helix. Have just got to work out the gradient. I can’t decide if to allow for pantograph clearance or to put a guide for it to run on.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Andymsa

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Andymsa said:

Have roughly done the first turn of the helix. Have just got to work out the gradient. I can’t decide if to allow for pantograph clearance or to put a guide for it to run on.

 

 

How about a piece of rail upside down on the bottom of the layer above? That would minimise the clearance you need, which would allow you to ease the gradient. The combination of curves and gradients is where nearly all problems with helices lie.

Edited March 19, 2021 by St Enodoc

[gordon s]

Andy, you want to take a look at this thread, as they got fed up with threading nuts up and down, so replaced the nuts with brass collars from eBay.

 

 

[Andymsa]

34 minutes ago, gordon s said:

Andy, you want to take a look at this thread, as they got fed up with threading nuts up and down, so replaced the nuts with brass collars from eBay.

 

 

That’s quite a good idea. I have found putting the nuts on the rod relatively ok, now this is sad putting the washers and watching them wobble down the thread is hypnotic 

[Andymsa]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

How about a piece of rail upside down on the bottom of the layer above? That would minimise the clearance you need, which would allow you to ease the gradient. The combination of curves and gradients is where nearly all problems with helices lie.

I was thinking the same thing, I was going to glue copper clad sleeper to the underside of the layer above and solder the rail to it, 

[Andymsa]

2 hours ago, gordon s said:

Andy, you want to take a look at this thread, as they got fed up with threading nuts up and down, so replaced the nuts with brass collars from eBay.

 

 

a great idea, if I was doing this as a new layout I would use this method. But having looked at it I can’t use this idea as I need to be able to adjust the top as it joins the existing baseboard.

[Andymsa]

Have laid out roughly the new single line connection into the helix. And for robin the obligatory level. 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Andymsa

[Andymsa]

Track laying  has started on the helix, the transition from level onto the first section of the helix had to be packed quite a bit. It needs fixing and I thought about ballast to fix it better.

 

 

[Andymsa]

Track is well onto the helix now, I had to redo the inner track alignment, although there was clearance I felt it should be more so it was adjusted. The track is screwed down with the flieischmann screws which are less intrusive. No cork underlay has been used as it it would make much difference to noise and would reduce height between track and deck above and once it’s all covered will be much quieter anyway. The gradient is around 2.1% although I may adjust this.

 

 

 

 

[WIMorrison]

20 hours ago, Andymsa said:

Track laying  has started on the helix, the transition from level onto the first section of the helix had to be packed quite a bit. It needs fixing and I thought about ballast to fix it better.

 

 

Andy

 

surely the fix is for the maker of the helix to design the entry and exit into the helix properly to provide a graduated gradient? 
 

it wouldn’t be difficult and given how much they charge for these products I would expect them to work without any fixing by the end-user

[Andymsa]

6 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Andy

 

surely the fix is for the maker of the helix to design the entry and exit into the helix properly to provide a graduated gradient? 
 

it wouldn’t be difficult and given how much they charge for these products I would expect them to work without any fixing by the end-user

the kit does come with two straight sections that may help with a graduated gradient. Personally I don’t think these straight sections would help as the thickness of the sections is around 5mm. In any case due to the location of the bottom of the helix I wasn’t able to use the straight section. I thought rebating where the bottom of the helix touches the base would help with the amount of the packing needed. The greater the material thickness the more packing is needed. As I write this I have had an idea, I’m going to make some wedge shape pieces to slot under the track at the end of the helix where it touches the base.

[Andymsa]

The helix build is going well, last night I adjusted the final gradient which is about 2% to 2.5%. I have installed a point half way up. The baseboard connection off the point can now be done. I have left the threaded rod for now as there will be another helix on top of this helix at some point.

[Andymsa]

The lead off section of base board from the mid point of the helix is now completed, I have also managed to build the baseboards that lead from the top part of the layout into the main station, I redesigned this as I intended to connect to a different location but it just didn’t look very good. I have to still join the top of the helix to the next section of the layout so there be 4 tracks on the station approach now. The change has also given better clearance where the temporary single portal tunnel mouth is. The change means I have to re think if to build on top of the helix with another separate helix.

[Satan's Goldfish]

On 27/03/2021 at 09:35, Andymsa said:

 

 

 

Just curious; how close do long vehicles like that carriage get to the threaded rods on the inside of the curves?

 

Looking good  

[Andymsa]

21 minutes ago, Satan's Goldfish said:

 

Just curious; how close do long vehicles like that carriage get to the threaded rods on the inside of the curves?

 

Looking good  

I just measured it. These are scale length coaches and are the longest I have. The inside clearance between the rods and coach is 15mm

[Andymsa]

I got a bit of a dilemma, I originally planned to put another level above the  station I just built. The lead off was going to be from the the helix at the end. This is completely separate fro the existing track on the helix. A helix on top of a helix effect you could say. But I’m thinking that this additional level could be a bit over powering ?

 

 

[WIMorrison]

Andy,

 

unless you want the American multilevel style layout with distinct levels then I absolutely  agree. The sort of model you are building will look much better with a bit of scenic depth rather than denser track - Germany has wonderful vistas and stunning scenery that they trains travel through and I think you would be better using the height to create some of that - but others will have different ideas, as you know I am in the less is more camp :)

 

Iain

[Andymsa]

11 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Andy,

 

unless you want the American multilevel style layout with distinct levels then I absolutely  agree. The sort of model you are building will look much better with a bit of scenic depth rather than denser track - Germany has wonderful vistas and stunning scenery that they trains travel through and I think you would be better using the height to create some of that - but others will have different ideas, as you know I am in the less is more camp

 

Iain

there was another point I forgot, if you look at the threaded rods for the helix this would look rather odd as it would ultimately be large block like structure. I am leaning towards scrapping the additional level. By doing this would allow some quite nice rolling hill effect to be a over the helix.

[WIMorrison]

I agree Andy, rolling hill with some trees with a nice Gasthaus and umpah band in lederhosen at the top :)

[Andymsa]

Work has moved away from the helix build temporarily as I had a slight change of plan. This involved some challenges which the following photos will show how it was solved, and those who are interested in the construction side may find useful. 

 

as you can see a new section of base board has been added. The challenge was there is no where to support this as it’s open plan underneath for access reasons. So a method was developed to support the 3*1 cross span. The distance from the board to the top of the span is 10.5 cm. so the section here has to be cut out of the span. 
 

 

I made this from 12mm ply and there is a piece of 2*1 at the top on the other side which is screwed and glued. This ply is fixed to existing uprights. At the end there is a custom made piece of wood vertically mounted and is screwed from below, this fixes onto the span.

 

 

finally the span is cut out as seen in the photo.

the width is the absolute minimum where train will pass with about 6mm for the 6foot and the same for the cess side. 

[Andymsa]

The next phase of work is now completed, just got the track to reinstate now. This section was originally connected to the top part of the layout but with the redesign this connection was surplus to requirements. An additional problem arose because one of the tracks feeds the commuter train storage and I needed to find a way to maintain this feed. The solution was as described in the last post and track laying had now begun. There is a screwdriver on the right where there will be another connection for the other track here ( yet to be built) into the helix which will form a triangle track arrangement on the helix. I have a temporary tunnel mouth to show how the terrain will flow, there will a retaining wall between the two tacks to hide the right track. There is another already built base board that needs to be put back in place that goes over these tracks but is removed at the moment for easy access for track building. 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Andymsa

[Andymsa]

The mid point helix connections is now finished. An additional point was installed that leads to the commuter station, track yet to be built.

the mid point connection was rejoined to the existing layout

 

all is wired and been tested electrically. The test runs up the helix to the mid point with a 8 coach train was very successful and it went up effortlessly.

 

work will now continue building up the helix to the next level and the existing based boards for the top level will be reinstated.

[Andymsa]

The new helix  is now finished.

 

the new mid helix feeds are finished.

 

the new work here has had a knock on effect at the other end of the layout as the existing helix there has to be turned. The benefit is trains will rise on the outside as opposed to now there on the inside, giving a better gradient. The only negative is I got to cut into a finished section and work under existing terrain, fortunately I built removable sections. But before I start work on that I got a station to build first once I done the next set of changes.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Andymsa

[WIMorrison]

Andy,

 

have you levelled the helix where the turnout leaves it?  How have you done the transition from gradient to flat to helix again assuming that they turnout is on the level?