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Construction Update

Past several weeks have been spent building the closet area that my spouse had been waiting for (what seems an eternity). It was a slow process as I only had couple of hours after work, and then couple of weekends, of free time. At the end, it turned out nice and my SO is happy with the looks. Still need to put some shelving inside, although I do not foresee any issues with that (might re-use the sub-roadbed that was in this area originally).

Finshed closet area, the layout entrance is to the left (I also moved two light switches for that area next to the entrance, they were before to far right next to the door)

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Design for the Helix

This took me a while to do, with a lot of tweaking and adjusting. Perhaps it was the use of rudimentary tools to make this (no CAD program) or my inability to focus (too many distractions elsewhere). Alas, here’s what a segment looks like:

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Layout shape under construction

Hard to believe, but I have a layout shape I actually intend to see through completion. Granted, most of the benchwork is already built, but this last mile was a real killer for me (figuring out relationship between staging and my railroad, geometry of the staging deck, where to put an entrance to the layout space, and half a dozen other things). Not to mention that earlier this year I switched scales and went (back) to H0 from N that I have been planning to build.

I wanted to re-use as much, if not all of the benchwork I already have, plus stick with the layout shape that is in place (around the walls and a peninsula on the center). Stumbling stone was the helix location and how it ties into the layout plus available space for it.

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Helix materials acquired

It’s been a while since the last post here, partially due to Summer (house maintenance, etc.) and partially because I did not have a direction. That is not to say I did not spend a lot of free time trying all kinds of various way to squeeze a 5 ft wide square through a 2 ft wide circle, figuratively speaking. I did come up with what I believe to be final helix dimensions, among other things.

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Fine tuning the LDEs

After getting some feedback on the forums, I had to decide how to correct issues that have been plaguing the layout from the start. As the layout shape is an E and there’s only one helix, the lower right corner next to the door there becomes a dead-end for all 3 decks. Ideally, if there was another helix at the end of the other arm of the E, this would not be an issue, but I did not want to put a helix around the column, so…

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Dividing the layout into LDEs

I’ve been struggling to figure out what to do about getting to and from upper levels. That is why the section in the upper left corner of the plan (that nobody ever sees in the photos) is still undeveloped. Originally in my N Scale plan there was supposed to be a helix there, but now with H0 that helix is a bit bigger and that tipped off the scale for me, even though N scale helix was almost as big, square footage wise.

The helix for H0 is going to be a really modest one, barely adequate by any standard. A 24″ inner loop and 26.5″ outer, with an average grade of 2.3%. I wish that grade was 2% or less but there’s just no room to make it an oval or make it a bigger circle without sacrificing aisle and benchwork space. I might see if there’s some room for a triangle but knowing that I need a 24″ turn curve that might be out of question.

Another option is a gradual around the wall climb, a no-lix. Problem with that is I would either have to give up the walk-in aspect of the layout and put a swing gate at the entrance, or make trains turn back and go through the same scenery twice, on a different track. Either methods use more precious benchwork space all around the layout, unlike the helix which hogs the corner with its 20 sq. ft.

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End of the line for N scale

While this was long in the making and slowly bubbling up towards the top, I finally realized this week that N scale is not where my heart is. For weeks (months) I have been struggling to fully embrace the N scale. I thought as time went by the small nuances and quirks that bothered me would go away…they did not.

And thus my struggle with lying to myself all this time that N scale is what I want to model in. I liked the idea of more railroading: track, scenery, everything in the same space I have available. Yet, the fiddly nature of the N scale never left my mind each time I held a piece of equipment. It was like holding a baby: which way should I do it so it doesn’t break. It simply did not have that feeling of heft that the larger H0 scale gave me.

There are other reasons, but it really sums down to H0 being the scale I always knew from the time when I was a boy. I grew up with H0 and it’s in the core of my being. So, farewell N scale – you are still a great scale just not for me…welcome back H0.

Layout wise, nothing much will change, except that I would broaden some curves by a few inches, and possibly widen benchwork in a few spots. I will have less track and scenery, and less cars in my trains, but that’s something I’m willing to give up. More soon…