While I was looking around Google trying to find more information on figuring and setting up grades on a helix, I came across this site:
http://craigbeck.org/index.php?tools
On this page Craig Beck put 3 useful tools for model railroaders: a grade calculating tool, a helix grade calculator, and a scale converting tool. Each one is easy to use, just plug in the information you already know. Like in my case, using the helix grade calculator, I put in 34" radius for the outer loop curve, and the 4" separation between loops, and it calculates the grade. The grade for my outer loop works out to be 1.87% which is .23% less than what I came up with with all my guesstimating and rough calculations. I came pretty close, but remember, I'm a pastry chef in real life.. NOT a mathematician! :p I wish I saw this last week. It would have saved me some work trying to figure out my grades on the helix. :) In fairness I wasn't that far off, and all I really needed was to get a close enough idea of how much of a grade I was dealing with on each loop.
I hope you find these tools useful.
It's 1943 and the country is at war. Allied victories are turning the tide of the war and America's industries and the country's railroads, big and small, are doing their part. The Maryland & Pennsylvania RR (Affectionately known as The Ma & Pa) might not have been as busy as the big RRs, still played its part in contributing to the eventual Allied victory. Come and see this all relived again as I build an HO scale version of The Ma & Pa, 1943.
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