Some update shots of my Behemoth Helix:
I started the helix the day after Thanksgiving last year. It's STILL under construction. That's good in the respect that I haven't given up in disgust or run into some unforseen and insurmountable problem. It's just taking a long time to build this thing!
I have four tiers of the nearly six tier helix completed. I've set a goal of Thanksgiving day (November 23) to complete major construction. That gives me two months.
An overall view if what it looked like as of early September:
The Cody branch exists the helix on the second tier, and curves around to where the town of Cody will be located to the right outside the helix:
A shot from along the wall in Mid-August. The yard on the bottom to the left is Minneapolis Staging. The lower single track on the far left is the Lander WY branch. The upper left track is the line from the helix to Thermopolis WY (behind the camera in this view), and the roadbed with just some cork laid above Minneapolis Staging will be Glenrock Siding. To the right of the aisle is Laurel, MT. The track leaving the helix part way up is the Cody branch in the above picture. The backdrop is in a temporary location to the left - it will actually be just to the right of the Thermopolis line, leaving Glenrock Siding the only visible track to the left of the aisle:
Power distribution is via terminal strips. There are two strips on each tier - one on each straight section. The sub busses will all be tied into main buss lines under the bottom tier:
Kinda dark between the tiers for the camera, but here are some test trains parked on the tier immediately below the level of current construction: