So within the last three weeks, we have completed both staging and the helix. This finishes off the goal of having everything required for those two projects ready for our show, Tiger Tracks. The staging yard was finished quickly after a redesign of the yard, with almost half the yard built in under a day. The helix was a bit more tricky to finished, due to unforeseen issues with the shape of our room (there is no such thing as a 90 degree angle), we had to re-cut some of the trapezoidal pieces used.
The very beginning of our yard, we were gauging how well our set up was going to work and ironing out the final design.
The final step for bench work before the yard could be installed was to finish off the plywood connection leading up the the helix.
Ryan and I decided to use a conveniently located piece of 3/4" plywood, can anyone guess what this was once for?
Ryan proudly showing off the remnants of the sign and what is soon to be part of the layout.
The left most two track ladders leading into the yard are completed and track has been laid beyond.
The view from the other side as we were working on it.
TRAINS! when there's track there will be trains, at this point we had the full loop completed in the back so you could run a train up through both parts of staging and up the helix and back again, in a very simplified form, our layout now has a U shaped track path.
Ryan works on installing the next switch in the ladder, one more after that and we had the ladder finished.
With the final ladder done, it wasn't long until we were completely done, I was working on drilling the holes for the feeders while Ryan took a quick break from soldering track together.
Elliot jumps in and helps out by cutting some of the track to the correct length with the dremel.
Phil sets the track in place and nails it down as we get closer to finishing staging.
A crowd gathers as we complete the last segment of track in the staging yard.
David watches as one of the first trains leaves staging towards the helix.
Here's the completed yard, you can see the loop in the back that connects both of the yards together and allows for continuous running.
The first circle of the helix goes up, definitely a work in progress at this point.
We had to stop about here due to the issues in continuing construction, but we got about half way with the entire build.
Working on fixing a straight bit of track that managed to get into the curve on the helix.
Two trains running in what we had done for the helix, doesn't that just look awesome? The caboose is a special piece in our collection from our late club advisor, the late Prof. Scudder. We ran it on the rear of the train as a bit of a "victory lap" before replacing it in its display case.
We re-purposed some of the old cars in the club to become a new work train, only one car is shown here but the final product has an engine and a couple of hopper cars for track nails, ties and joiners.
There's enough clearance in the helix to run overhead power (you didn't hear me say that)! We can run anything we want through the helix, even auto racks and other oversize cars.
With finals week being this week and thanksgiving break coming up next week, there wont be too much more to show for now. Tiger Tracks is coming up soon, the weekend of week one, and there will be plenty of information coming up for that. So that's it for now, I'm going to dive back into that growing pile of school work that is probably going to eat me alive, hope everyone enjoys the update on the RIT Model Railroad Club's new layout!
--Matt Glazer
