Fiddle yard adventures - Part 3

Entry posted by JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog October 28, 2020

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With the fiddle yard board constructed, I rolled up my sleeves and had a grand tidy and move around in the shed! Everything was put into it's new place and I made a simple removable stand for the fiddle yard to sit upon.

Next up - creating the piece that would join the main layout to the fiddle yard. This would need to curve the track so that it met the fiddle yard at it's centre. I did some measuring, calculating, crude offering-up and plain guesswork to create a template on the computer. This template helped me to cut an angled piece of 9mm plywood to the right size and shape. It's roughly 16 inches long.

Et voila! I was quite surprised that it fit reasonably well first time too. The 12mm plywood top, which has been removed from the right side of the image above, was cut to accommodate both the 9mm joining board and some control panels made from leftover acrylic.

The layout isn't going to be moving anywhere unless in an emergency or if we decide to move home at some stage, but I still wanted every part to be removable if possible. I decided to turn to magnets again for the purpose of securing and aligning the joining board. To further help with alignment, I added two pieces of aluminium angle to brace against the sides of each board. I later added another running the length, like a spine, for further rigidity.

I placed the joining board where it would eventually sit and drilled small holes where the magnets would be placed. This helped line everything up.

On the underside of the joining board I drilled wider, shallow holes that would accommodate the magnets. Then I glued the magnets in place. I did the same on each board, corresponding with the holes drilled previously. When the joining board was then placed between each main board, the magnets held it quite firmly in place.

With the boards aligned and in place, the track was ready to be secured. The middle line of the traverser tray was attached first, measuring to find the dead centre and aiming to keep it as straight as possible. A Peco tracksetta was invaluable in helping to line everything up. It's also a great guide to use when cutting track, ensuring a reasonably straight cut.

The middle traverser track was used to get the small interface piece (below) as straight as possible. This all had to be done making sure the traverser tray was aligned according to the magnet system previously installed. Cutting track into small pieces can lead to loss of stability and structure, so I decided to solder the ends to strips of PCB. This was particularly useful on the joining board where I used curved track and needed to trim one of the ends. Placing the tracksetta between the two joined lines ensured perfect alignment.

The remaining traverser lines were added and numbered (using Slater's Plastikard numbers) for reference.

I always prefer to make electrical connections hard wired where possible for reliability. For the traverser lines, each line is hard wired to a rotary switch, meaning I only have to turn the dial to decide which line is powered. A switch also means I can isolate the entire tray if needed. Joins between boards have been achieved through use of barrel plugs. It's not exactly pretty, but it does the job!

The next job is to complete the wiring. It is pretty much done as far as the traverser itself, I just need to get the tray wired up. This will all go to a plug which can be disconnected, meaning the tray can also be removed if needed. I'm very keen on keeping things accessible should they require future work. Mostly because I don't trust my soldering abilities!

Below are a couple of shots of the whole thing, as far as I have reached. The SDJR Jinty was the sacrifice offered up as test train and the first to (successfully) navigate the new route!