Over the past couple of months I have been building the helix that will carry the eastern end of the layout up to a return loop above Weso. This helix is stacked upon the almost identical lower helix and uses the same 5/16 all-thread rods. Being identical, the details of it's construction can be seen in this series of posts from when the lower helix was built. This new upper helix is now complete and has been connected to the return loop section of bench work that was already above Weso. I ended up lowering that section about 1-3/4 inches to line up with the top turn of the helix.
There is not room on the return loop section for a double ended staging yard but I did want to have some sort of staging there so I came up with a couple of ideas as a compromise. First, there is enough room to have stub end staging for the typical train length run on this layout. Using 4 turnouts a train will be able to enter or leave either one of two staging tracks. I am currently working on a control panel for this and the graphic below shows this.
The hex shaped object with the red center represents a push button to route a train around the loop. The pair of hex shaped objects with gray centers below that represent momentary ON-OFF-ON toggle switches that will route a train into or out of each siding. A dead section at the end of each siding will stop the train. The locos will have to be manually moved to the other end of the train. All of the green indicator LED's show the routes.
The second idea I am going to try is to have up to two trains using the loop as serial staging. That is what the red LED's and the toggle switch on the far right are for. This will be covered in detail in future posts.
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