R.J. DeBerg hairpin loop

Overview

As I was designing my layout, I had worked out the small inner loop that circles the grassy area in the back yard.

For expansion, I had figured that the track needed to go around the outer edges of the property. So that took me along the back fence, and I figured out how to get the track up the east side to the planters.

But, I had never figured how to get back down to ground level once I was up in the air on the north side of the property, I just knew it was a problem to be solved later, since the track did have to go in the planters.

Now the track is 21 inches in the air, and I tried to figure how to get it down. I had the idea of a helix to bring it down, but if you read that part, you see that it was really unworkable, being very limiting of train length and loco and car length.

I was stumped. Kept thinking about it, but stumped.

Then, after the Phoenix convention, my friend R.J. DeBerg was visiting, and 5 minutes after looking at this area he came up with a solution that escaped me for several years. That is why this loop is dedicated to him. Sometimes it pays to have friends who worked for the railroads!

So, at the west end of the layout, the elevated track needs to turn 180 degrees to double back, and start the steep downgrade. The picture below show the beginning of the 180 degree hairpin that starts at the end of the passing siding. You will note the switch and track toing straight into the wall, there will be a hole for future expansion of the main line.

east end

Below shows the mockup of the curve and curving around to go behind the shed. Note the gate, another problem to be solved.

hairpin

Continuing past the end of the shed. Track is all level until past the curve.

hairpin3

Here is a picture of a trestle given to me by Mark & Susan Lovelace, from our G scale club, unfortunately they are moving and leaving San Diego. It's 31" high and I believe I can modify it to fit the space: (it's not in the final location)

20190217 091135

Tuffy

Tuffy is Ted's Red-lored Amazon parrot.

Tuffy is very interested in trains, he oversees all of Ted's investigations:

TuffyOnDoorView1 IMG 6513

But he is also involved in some of the reviews:

What! You say smoke from a GP40 is normal? !!!

tuffy

Kevin Strong

He has a small point to point layout with 8' or 10' curves, battery powered apparently.

Phase 2: continuing the outer loop and adding a long passing siding

Well, the track going West (North property line) was only to be the future expansion to the front yard. This was because the track was 21 inches in the air, and that elevation continues West to the fence.

For reference here's the view from East to West on the North side:

First, all the way to the east, you see where the track is coming from as it goes counterclockwise. The track is coming from inside the planter that you see by the back fence.

It then proceeds behing the fireplace (made the landscapers crazy by specifying a full foot of clearance between the fireplace and the wall.

It then comes up to the narrow section you see in the left foreground. The track is now 21" above the level of the rest of the track.

fireplace

Looking West now from the narrow section towards the west end. The protrusion is a large fountain.

IM000312

Having found a solution (shown later) I not only continued the track westwards from here.

While extending the main line to complete the outer loop, it occurred to me that I could use a passing siding on this long stretch of track on the North side of the property.

Of course, even though 10 years ago I had thought to ensure all structures were 12-14" away from the property line, and all large plants the same, the wiring and plumbing to the fountain gave me a clearance of only 10"!

So, it took 2 days for these conduits and water lines to be moved. Now I had 14", enough to give clearance for double track behind the fountain. This changed the length of the passing siding from 10 feet to 34 feet! Wahoo!. The siding starts just about 6 foot West of the fireplace.

west from fireplace

Looking back east from the above picture.

north siding

Now to the solution: After just 5 minutes looking at my 2 year dilemma, R.J. says, just make a hairpin here, and then come back east to get to ground level. Amazing.

Here's the very West end (nearest the front yard), the loop is just mocked up. See the WR switch that will continue straight to the wall? I will eventually bore a hole for the track to head out to the front yard, which you can see in the distance. It will be used for a helper cutoff for now.

The passing siding connects back to the main. Here you see the temporary supports for the track and loop.

north siding1

Very important to note: with the extreme downgrade coming, and the desire to run long trains, the track is dead level at the approach and through the hairpin. The downgrade ONLY starts on straight track.

The picture below shows the start of clearancing the track.

hairpin5

The shed was too close to the house to allow clearance

too tight

Now the shed has been moved out 4 inches, and while hard to see, there's 1 inch of clearance at worst case both to the house and on the chord that the car cuts across the inner side of the curve.

Now that I have clearance, a series of supports will continue the 5.5% downgrade behind the shed:

behind shed

Unfortunately, it also blocks the man door into the garage, but that's ok, there's a huge car behind that door so we cannot use it anyway.

Now the track continues it's downgrade back East towards the back yard:

downgrade2

The part that is there in the courtyard, in front of the fountain lifts out:

downgrade10

So, a bit more downgrade and we finally hit ground level again, yay!

downgrade12

Now the track is ready to connect back to where it started, first it continues along the back of the house:

south by house

Then it parallels the back of the house, with a passing siding. The left track connects to the inner loop, the right track will complete the outer loop.

west

Notice the crossover to bring the outer loop to the inner loop?

Here is the detail of the crossover, I use a short length of straight track, 15 centimeters. This give me exactly a 7" center to center on the parallel tracks:

crossover orig

An ovehead view of the crossover that gives a train access to the inner loop. d finally you can see how all this fits:

crossover aerial

Yes, that bottom center switch is wrong, I was mocking up the track, that switch is changed to a right hand as it will lead to the switchyard in the bottom right corner of this picture.

And remember, just a bit more counter clockwise is the other crossover to let a train "out" of the inner loop onto the mainline.

lookeast orig

Dennis Sirrine's Layout

Dennis has an unbelievable layout. I believe his budget was one million dollars. It's just huge, and the garage is full of racks of locomotives.

He can run battery power and track power, uses the same air motors for his switches as I do.

The trackwork is unbelievable, it is PERFECT. It is laid on a foam roadbed on concrete. All the "lines" of the track are perfect. The first thing my friend R.J. DeBerg said to Dennis was: "did you line up your track with a laser"? "Yup" was the reply.

He is planning an extension into the other half of his back yard.

Just an "omigod" layout.