Pointless fiddleyard / Traverser

[DCB]

I have been wondering about Fiddle yard design (again)   As the Hockey Stick traverser I have been banging on about is quite a beast I have changed thought process to a traversing table containing part of the approach track to a conventional Fiddleyard.  It saves length compared to a conventional FY and more important a shed load of cash for points, motors, Seedy Yews and all the other gubbins.

Plan is a very short traverser which has as many tracks as there FY roads. These are spaced closely, 1" or less in 00 the centre one straight and the outers curved.

Each traverser track connects the incoming track to one FY road, The Traverser works backwards to the FY the left Traverser track connects to the right FY road.

Has it been done before, if so why didn't it work?

See drawing in Anyrail with point set up for comparison. I think it is set track with Y points. Traverser uses 4th radius set track.

Edited March 11, 2020 by DavidCBroad

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I have never seen anything like that before. The main problem that has to be solved is reliable indexing both ends for all of the routes on the traverser. (The sum of the added spacing between lines on the traverser to produce the fanning out, may not exceed the traverse at the LHS as drawn.)

 

How large is the fiddle yard to be? If not too huge an alternative is to put the whole fiddle yard on the traverser. Then all lines can be straight across the break, and there is potential for multiple parallel running lines at both ends and 'any running line with any fiddle yard road'.

[The Johnster]

If one square equals a square foot, then you need at least about 9" clearance behind the rear edge of the fy board for the sector plate/traverser to rebate into.  It looks like an ingenious idea but will require  very accurate alignment of each road while maintaining the alignment of the other roads; there can be no sideways play whatever in the sector plate, which must slide or roll very smoothly if it is not to bump stock on the layout or the fy off the road; I'd recommend motorising it.

[rdr]

3 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

I have never seen anything like that before. The main problem that has to be solved is reliable indexing both ends for all of the routes on the traverser. (The sum of the added spacing between lines on the traverser to produce the fanning out, may not exceed the traverse at the LHS as drawn.)

 

How large is the fiddle yard to be? If not too huge an alternative is to put the whole fiddle yard on the traverser. Then all lines can be straight across the break, and there is potential for multiple parallel running lines at both ends and 'any running line with any fiddle yard road'.

I have an 8 road 3 metre long traverser under construction that holds all the stock when not in use and splits in two to make it portable. The whole 8 road traverser moves with stock.

Edited March 11, 2020 by rdr

[teaky]

28 minutes ago, rdr said:

I have an 8 road 3 metre long traverser under construction that holds all the stock when not in use and splits in two to make it portable. The whole 8 road traverser moves with stock.

I for one would be interested to see the construction to date.  Do you have any photos please?

[Michael Edge]

That's a very interesting idea, at least for a single track layout.

[Maltazer]

It's an Interesting concept, because the moving section is small, lightweight, and only moves when there is nothing on it.  This should make it possible to change tracks extremely quickly, compared  to a conventional traverser loaded up with stock, especially when motorized and automated.

 

The downside is the angled cuts to the exit rails which I always understood to cause big problems with reliability.

 

I tried drawing out the same arrangement but including the reverse curves on the traverser too.  It is still possible to make it shorter than the equivalent fan of points (unless you use 3-ways), especially if the fiddleyard roads are the streamline distance of 50mm rather than a setrack 64mm apart.  If the entry tracks are rammed next to each other (30mm without interlacing sleepers), the required overhang is reduced too.

 

Certainly food for thought!

 

 

 

[Michael Edge]

I don't have any problems with much more angled cuts than that.

Unfinished in this photo but it works perfectly now. It doesn't work so well with plastic sleeper track though, I do usually replace a few with pcb strips.

 

[Happy Hippo]

If you put an all road traverser in you'd have more storage space per line.  It would also be easier to align.

 

In the space you save with that difficult to build and align imitation of an octopus's legs, you could have an engine release at the far end of the traverser.

 

That would probably be easier than trying to invent a hexagonal wheel and more comfortable too

[rdr]

18 hours ago, teaky said:

I for one would be interested to see the construction to date.  Do you have any photos please?

very much under construction atm, which keeps getting sidelined by the need to work in the same space. It's for my layout "intermodal" and has undergone several design changes  and a house move. I have a thread for the layout on here "Intermodal in P4". The current and i expect the final setup will be five 1.5m long boards connected inline with the first two being the fiddle yard/traverser. I'm using roller bearing drawer runners to support the traverser boards and it will be controlled by a computer.