Helix Rebuild
If at first you don’t succeed, it maybe time to try again. The helix worked great for awhile. No problems. Trains ran smoothly after a lot of tweaking. With the change in seasons and humidity, the wood changed and trains did not run as smooth. After spending a lot of time looking for a solution, I decided the swing bridges would have to be redone. The most reliable solution was to change the swing bridges into drop bridges. I decided on using a pin system for reliable alignment. Wood dowels were inserted into the bridge and matching holes drilled in ledges in the layout. Shims were used to raise the bridge to the proper height. A benefit has been access into the room is now little easier. I again used an extension cord and receptacle to connect power to the helix.
Continued Work at Denton
While looking at future scenery possibilities for Denton, I originally had the creek going straight back into backdrop. I tried using a small mirror technique to give the perception of the creek continuing on beyond the background. The angle needed for the mirror to work, made it impossible to hide in the scenery. For the second time, if don’t succeed, you need to try again. This time I changed the course of the creek bed to bend out of sight to the right.
| BEFORE | AFTER |
I also added the foam contours for the tunnel entrance and positioned the concrete portal and wing walls.
