Caxton

And that, my friend, looks absolutely lovely!

Hi, sorry, I could have provided more detail in that post. The helices are going to be oval and double track, rising 8cm per layer. The inner track will measure approximately 4.8m per layer and the outer around 5.2m, giving gradients of 1.67% and 1.54% respectively. I built my test ramp at 2% to try and compensate for the extra drag caused by the curves. There was no science behind that figure, by the way, it just seemed like big enough margin added to the 1.54% figure!! I think that I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and build the powerbase in, knowing that like yourself, I might never need to fit magnets to anything. Better that though than not fitting it, crossing my fingers now that it won’t be needed and regretting it in the future. Thanks for your input George

Hi, thanks for the info. The powerbase idea is really just a back up plan for me. I am going to build two helices to join an upper level scenic section to a lower storage yard. I really only model diesel and electric post 1990 but I do have some steam locomotives and that’s where the potential problem lies. I set up a straight 2% incline and found that a Bachmann class 20 could pull 10 Mk1 coaches from a standing start with no issue at all. A Hornby railroad 9f (loco driven) managed 7, a Hornby Princess Royal managed 6 and a Hornby B17 managed only 4. All three are loco driven and are smooth, responsive runners on the flat. This is why I thought that it would be worthwhile building in the steel plates from the outset as a contingency so that if I did encounter problematic locos, I could just stick some magnets on the bottom . The alternative is to prevent such locos from using the helices but that’s not really ideal. However, now that I can’t seem to find a cheap alternative to the powerbase steel, I need to weigh up the cost against the value of this contingency. Thanks again for your help. George

Hi, yes, Magnadhesion was a good system. I still have Hymek and a Brush type 2 packed away somewhere.

Hi, this is something that I am looking at presently. I bought a powerbase pack just to test the principle and I was happy with the results. Like you, I found that the cost is quite off-putting so I started searching for steel sheet to cut up. The thickness of the powerbase plates is 0.012" and although I managed to find comparable products (Search for Precision Brand Steel Shim), the cost worked out to be almost the same. Cutting the shim into 35mm wide strips to match the powerbase plates would work out at £2.16/metre compared with £2.20/metre for the powerbase. I had expected the Steel Shim to be significantly cheaper than something that has been custom made so I am hoping that someone on here will point us in the direction of a product which will suffice but at a lower cost than the Powerbase plates. I don't mind cutting the steel but it's not worth it for 4p / metre! Many thanks George