...if you are building a model railway and wish to put some height into it, but don't have a lot of room; or wish to access build and have access to storage sidings underneath the main layout.

To raise track sufficiently to clear trains on tracks passing below, can take a tremendous length of track and usually, a great deal of room. But if that track was in the form of a helix, great space-savings can be made. A helix is in the form of a spiral, rather like a large cork-screw. Trains can enter the helix and after travelling up or down, are able to emerge at a different level. 

Building a helix, however, can be somewhat challenging. A major consideration has to be that ascending a slope on a continuous curve is different from ascending in a straight line, because the curve increases the drag on the wheels, making the climb more difficult for the motive power. Therefore the angle of a slope has to be lower for a helix than for a straight line, unless another factor can be used to overcome this drag. Fortunately, there is an answer: Super-elevation. This is the technique of positioning the outer rails of curved track higher than the inner rails of the curve. Therefore, if  a track was curving to the left, the right-hand rails would be higher than the left-hand rails. Although this makes a helix very useful, it also adds to the complexity of building it. Of all the railway modellers I have spoken to over the years, many have told me that helixes are useless. May I suggest that possibly it was the helix THEY built that wasn't up to the mark.

There are really only three elements to a successful helix: Design, Construction and Installation. Noch have designed a helix that works. They have produced a helix that is easy to construct. All that the railway modeller is required to do is assemble the parts and complete the third leg - Installation. The only requirement here is a completely level base upon which to place the assembled helix. 

Noch produces a range of Helices - Single or double track; HO or N; with modellers usually using a basic helix of one and a half circles to reach a first level and an add-on helix of one circle to reach the next level.

There is a range of versions produced for particular brands/models of track. We keep stocks of the most popular for HO and order others from Noch as required.

To see the range available, type 'helix' into the seaqrch box on the left-hand side of our home screen.