Completion of the Helix remodel

After all the demolition, I was able to sand the areas that needed it. I also came across some areas that I used screws in. They were fine before since the cork covered them, but now that I don't plan on using cork I need to grind down the heads. So I loaded a grinding stone in the Ol' dremel and away I went. I know I made a point of wearing saftey glasses, grinding particles can and will get everywhere. I deal with that in my job as a welder for Caterpillar Inc.

  After all of that was done, I used a tack cloth to clean all the dust and particles from the sub-roadbed so that the adhesive caulk would adhere better. This loctite caulk is pretty good, real easy to use and it grabs pretty quick.

 I made transitions from cork to make sure I was at the proper elevation. This was fairly easy with the use of a surfoam, sanding block and a powered detail sander. Out of all three,, the surfoam tool worked the best.

I remember last time, I soldered three sections of flex together for the helix. That was a pain, so this time I decided to solder two sections together. Before soldering, I cut one tie off each end of the flex track section. This worked great, because of the 20" radius that I was using did not require the rail to move that much.

 I made sure to pay attention to the smoothness of the soldered joint, any bumps would not be good. I had scrap steel laying around that I use for weights,, worked great.

 I made sure the rails were in line and also that the rail joiners were centered.

 Here you see the completed solder joint.

After I laid the first two piece section,, I measured to see how much rail is cut off on the ends to make joints line up. Worked out to be 14mm. So I fabricated the two piece flex track sections, cut the right amount off, applied the adhesive caulk and a track laying I did go!!!!

There are some sections that I needed to add more supports to. You can see here, there is no support for the joint area of the sub-roadbed. You can see the added support in the picture prior to this section of text.

     While laying the track,, I noticed that I did not have to solder the connections between the two piece sections. The adhesive caulk and new rail joiners did the trick,,nice flowing curved joints!! I am so relieved that helix works MUCH better. Before I had to watch it all the time, now I can run a train in there and not even worry about it.

     Well that is it for now, I plan on taking some videos of trains traversing the helix. That will be a little later. I work weekends,, so maybe Tuesday next week,, who knows.

  Thanks for looking, Have a great one, Greg

Helix remodel

You know people say, that if you do not make mistakes you are not learning or trying. Well I learned alot.

   My helix has given me constant fits!! So I decided to rip up all the track. I am even removing the cork too. I had used a acrylic based adhesive caulk for laying my track,, worked really well, to the point of making it a royal pain in the rear to remove.

   The reason for track removal, is because when I had laid the track I put the adjustable ( sliding) rail on the outside. Which makes the gauge too wide. Yay me for being stoopid. Well now I am going to fix it! only been a couple of years dealing with the PITA. 

     When I started the deconstruction of the helix I thought I would be able to save the track.  I guess I was naive in thinking that. Nope, no way, ain't going to do it,,,etc. So,, I decided to remove everything, say goodbye mr track and mr cork, Bye Bye. Which is not too bad,, the helix takes about 27 pieces of track. Minus the 3 on top,, and about 5 pieces I saved,, not too bad. I need to get the other helix built also. 

     I used a couple different tools for the removal process. Putty knife,,nope. Xacto chisel blade,,,no way. 16" floating knife, used in taping and bedding sheetrock, that no workie either. Finally I decided to use a 1 1/2" chisel. Nice and sharp is the key here. An easy touch, and BLAMMO the track and cork come off easy. Which leaves me with less work to do with a sander to make it all smooth.

   

Here you can see the tie imprint in the caulk,,note to self,, don't use that much next time.!!!

 When I was cutting out the roadbed for the helix, I made sure I had centerlines for the cork. As you can see they are still there which will make the track re-laying easy peasy

      After I get all the roadbed up, I plan on sanding the plywood roadbed smooth to get rid of any remaining glue and or cork. When I get the new track laid, I will post some more pictures and also a video of the first train using the new helix.

Anyways,, that is all for now. 

 See Ya,  Greg