After a couple months of just breaking in the staging level and working out the bugs (and retiring from the Air Force, and going camping, and taking a trip to South Dakota…), I finally starting building again yesterday. I’ve got the first turn of the first helix that connects staging to the wye at St. Charles complete. 1.5 more turns to go.

This is the second time I’ve used this method to build a helix, and I really like it. I call it the “double pinwheel”–each level is essentially two layers of 8 identical trapezoids of plywood, each put together like a pinwheel with the two layers overlapping. It’s very easy (once you do the math to figure out your trapezoid and cut a master), it’s very forgiving, and it’s very strong after the glue dries.

Some particulars on the helix. It’s a 24″ radius helix that gains 4.5″ per turn. That works out to a 3% grade which should work fine for all the trains that will use it. The track you see looping around it (in the black painted area) is the continuous running loop connection. I was able to let a short string of cars run away from the top, and they negotiated the switches without a hitch at warp speed, even the #4 with REALLY short points going into the L&N staging yard you can see in the photo above (phew).

I’ll write a full article on the double pinwheel helix soon as I don’t know of anyone else who uses this method (let me know if you do). In the meantime, here are some progress pics.

• 

• 

Last night, I put down the “bronze spike” commemorating the completion of track for the staging level. Not that exciting in the big scheme of things, but it is a major milestone in the layout’s progress!

The last piece of the staging level to be completed was the 4-track L&N staging yard representing Pennington, VA. This yard is stub-ended with tracks about 13.5 feet long. This is enough for a locomotive, cab, and about 20-28 hoppers. Based on photos, this will be more than adequate to represent the meager traffic the L&N hauled off the St. Charles Branch. I made it four tracks because I had the space, and this will give me some room to store trains and cars from “other eras” when not being used for a particular operating session.

There is still a bit more work to do before trains can run. I need to put in the switch control mechanisms and drop about 100 feeders to the main DCC track bus under the layout.

In the photo above, taken from the door to the layout room, you can see the Southern staging yard under the mess on the far left, the beginning of the Southern staging yard and end of the L&N stub tracks against the far wall, the Southern main linking staging to the helix (will occupy the open area on the right) along the right aisle, the L&N staging yard, and the continuous running connection entering along the right-hand wall–this last track connects to the Southern main via a switch just out of view in the lower right corner.

Yesterday was an eventful day in two ways. First, it was our first day under “stay at home” orders for COVID-19 in Colorado. Second, the extra time gave me a chance to hit a major milestone on the St. Charles Branch–the first sections of track!!!

The first piece was a section of flex track for the Southern Railway staging yard representing Appalachia, VA. I’m hand laying all the track on the visible section of the layout, but I’ll be using Atlas Code 83 flex track for the staging yards, helices and hidden track. The flex track is recycled from my former layout representing the Interstate Railroad’s Dixiana Branch, and I’ve got plenty!

I am hand laying the switches in the staging area, and I started the first two switches yesterday. I’m using the method Tony Koester outlined in Model Railroader a couple decades ago. As you can see, it’s an outside-in method and requires no fancy tools, just rail nippers, needle-nosed pliers, a flat file, a triangle file, a bench vise, soldering iron, and an NMRA track gauge. I’m using Micro Engineering Code 83 rail and small spikes here. The tool set is rounded out with a freight car truck to check things as you go.

It’s been more than 5 years since I hand laid a switch, but I’ve found it’s like riding a bike (I looked but couldn’t find where I’d put Tony’s article, so it was all from memory). One lesson I carried over from my previous layout is to pay special attention to two things on the frog: 1) make sure the track is at the tightest acceptable gauge at the frog, and 2) take extra time to make the rails line up perfectly with the point of the frog.