January’s primary focus has been all things helix. Over winter “break” (when my kids were on break, so we were ‘off’), I worked on building the base for the helix to prepare for building the actual helix.

The helix

From day one, the helix has been something I was nervous about building, or even having one for that matter. Unfortunately, I knew that with what I wanted to do operationally for the layout, it was nearly inevitable. Much of the plywood for the helix has been sitting in the garage for about a year (I was so optimistic it would be done sooner!), and it was time to tackle the behemoth.

The helix will end up being 12 loops - 4 between the staging level and lower-scenic level, and 8 between the lower level and upper level. It will be double-tracked to help keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Helix progress

Helix sub panel

I wanted to add block detection to each level of the helix so an operator could see where their train was, even if I decide to “cover” the helix up at some point. Unfortunately, this meant I needed 24 detection blocks just for the helix (12 levels x 2 tracks). Because of the number of components involved, I made a “sub-panel” for the helix electronics. It is still a work in progress, but I think it will work well.

Here are the components the panel holds:

• 24x CT (current transformer) detection coils
• 3x BOD-8 block detector boards
• 2x Tower LCC boards

With the help of my friend Steve, I designed a little holder for the CT coils - it needs some modifications, but overall It will work nicely to hold them in groups of 4.

I plan on doing a bigger write-up of the block detection soon, so I won’t go into the connectivity details here - it's a lot!

Helix sub-panel components

Mainline track

While Dave has been doing most of the track laying on the helix, I’ve been working on laying more of the mainline track. About half of the (visible) mainline on the lower level is complete, and I’m working on the semi-hidden return loop around the back of the layout. Once the helix is connected to the lower level, I will continue with the visible portion of the main.

Locomotive inventory + speed matching

Because this is my first WSOR-based layout, I had to purchase a lot of new motive power since most of my previous power was UP/CNW (not to worry, those will still have a home on the new MVL). I’ve acquired a good amount so far, but there is a lot of re-numbering work to be done. I kept asking myself “how many of each model do I have?” so I took the time to mark the case for each locomotive to what the locomotive will be changed to.

There’s still a lot of work to do here, including:

• Installing decoders in most of the acquired SD40-2s
• Ensuring at least (roughly) one locomotive per consist has sound.
• Programming + renumbering the existing fleet
• Add temporary labels to the locomotives themselves to use for operations until they are renumbered/patched.

After doing some initial testing with pulling capacity on the helix, I realized I need to start speed matching and consist a few locomotives of each type (eg, SD40-2s and GP38-2s) for better load testing on the helix.

Mainline track laying progress

All in all, it was a productive month on the railroad. I still feel like I'm adding more things to the todo list than removing, but I'm happy with the progress. I'm very excited to get to running some trains.