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I am currently building a functional Lego minifigure-scaled escalator that can transition from flat platforms to stairwell. My first iteration for its guiding rail includes a slope of ~39.5 degree inclination as thus: profile view of first rail semi-orthographic view of first rail

And here is the first staircase which the guiding rail is designed around: orthographic view of first staircase

But now I've been looking into a newer staircase design that has an additional plate of thickness, and its slope is ~50 degrees as measured in Stud.io. Here are views of the staircase design with the guiding bars colored red:

Profile view of new staircase designOrthogonal view of new staircase design

And here are versions of the slope with attempts of hinge bricks and SNOT to uphold the slope angles: Attempts of building slope

Note that both slopes are not properly aligned with the studs regardless of hinge bricks or Technic connector pegs. On the left design, the colored bricks (blue is of the slopes, and green is aligned with the studs) had an offset that disallow peg connections; and on the right design, the gap between the hinge brick and the SNOT brick is actually thinner than a plate.

Is there any way of building a framework for this 50 degree slope? Preferably a legal method that produces minimal stress due to the technical nature of this build?

Please note that I have limited bricks at my disposal to physically test this out, and I don't intend to use Lego's dedicated escalator piece as it is incompatible with any of my designs.

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You can always invert your "escalator piece" to use as a base as it will make exactly same angle. Then it is up to you how you want your guiding rail to be attached. Here's one idea:

enter image description here

Please note both Blue pieces may not alighn to stud/half-stud grid.

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  • Any connection points where the ratio of the vertical separation to horizontal separation is 6/5 will do, one does not need to limit one-self to clips and bars... In my opinion however, a non-integral alignment along the hypothenuse is very undesirable...
    – Michael Verschaeve
    May 4 at 13:36
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The bar elements in your step part are vertically separated 3 plates and horizontally 1 module which is 2.5 plates. So the exact angle (rather than approximately measured) is atan (3/2.5) = 50.1944289 degrees.

You might want to consider designing a step part where the bars are separated vertically by 4 plates and horizontally by 3 plates (or vica versa) which gives a slightly steeper angle (53.13 degrees) so that the sides of the triangle describing the main stairs are in ratio of 3-4-5 (pythagorean triangle). As a bonus the multiple of 5 plates will correspond nicely with a multiple of 2 modules...

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  • Making the step part 4 plates thick would make it rather tall for the average minifigure, therefore I would prefer designing a slope to accommodate the steps rather than the opposite. Also I don't understand what you mean by the latter, could you demonstrate with some kind of schematics?
    – Duy Vuong Quang
    May 3 at 10:59
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    Surely you've heard of Pythagoras ? A²=B²+C², where ABC is a right angled triangle A the length of the hypothenuse and B and C the lengths of the legs. A=5,B=3,C=4 is the best known such triangle... Any triangle in ratio 3:4:5 is easy to build in lego... if you can have the bars in the step forming a 3:4:5 triangle, creating a slope using legal techniques is easy. Anything else is difficult or impossible
    – Michael Verschaeve
    May 3 at 13:55

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