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Fiddle Yards


Tigger

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Following countless PMs and emails between Stubby47, Sidecar Racer and myself, we have come up with a plan for the fiddle yards for this project

 

FiddleYards.jpg

Right Hand YARD PLAN



The yards are made up of two 4ft (1.2 mts) X 2 ft (0.6mts) board, each providing stabling for 4 56" (1.4 mtr) trains. As you can see each fiddle yard is divided into 5 sections. The orange section is switchable between the two controllers that will provide the power for the main module lines and each siding is isolated, when switched on it will be under the same control as the orange section.



controlpanel.jpg

Left Hand CONTROL PANEL

 

All the coloured dots are bi coloured (Red/Green) LED's that will change to indicate the current state of operation. The empty circles are the locations of the switches. The Switch in the top right changes the whole fiddle yard to either the Modules Up Line (Left to Right) or the Down Line (Right to Left)

 

The plan for operation is that the fiddle yard receiving the train will drive the train towards it, giving full control of the train as it enters the yard and it will work something like this......

 

1/ Assemble trains in sidings

2/ Both operators select SEND

3/ Both operators select correct points and siding

4/ Tell each other ready

5/ Drive the trains towards themselves

6/ Before the train arrives Select the correct points and siding

7/ Switch to RECEIVE and drive the train into the desired siding

8/ Back to 1

The detailed planing of how this is all going to work is now at an advanced stage, but we would still like to hear your comments.

Updates to follow when the build starts

Cheers for now

Mike

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Following countless PMs and emails between Stubby47, Sidecar Racer and myself, we have come up with a plan for the fiddle yards for this project

 

FiddleYards.jpg

Right Hand YARD PLAN



The yards are made up of two 4ft (1.2 mts) X 2 ft (0.6mts) board, each providing stabling for 4 56" (1.4 mtr) trains. As you can see each fiddle yard is divided into 5 sections. The orange section is switchable between the two controllers that will provide the power for the main module lines and each siding is isolated, when switched on it will be under the same control as the orange section.



controlpanel.jpg

Left Hand CONTROL PANEL

 

All the coloured dots are bi coloured (Red/Green) LED's that will change to indicate the current state of operation. The empty circles are the locations of the switches. The Switch in the top right changes the whole fiddle yard to either the Modules Up Line (Left to Right) or the Down Line (Right to Left)

 

The plan for operation is that the fiddle yard receiving the train will drive the train towards it, giving full control of the train as it enters the yard and it will work something like this......

 

1/ Assemble trains in sidings

2/ Both operators select SEND

3/ Both operators select correct points and siding

4/ Tell each other ready

5/ Drive the trains towards themselves

6/ Before the train arrives Select the correct points and siding

7/ Switch to RECEIVE and drive the train into the desired siding

8/ Back to 1

The detailed planing of how this is all going to work is now at an advanced stage, but we would still like to hear your comments.

Updates to follow when the build starts

Cheers for now

Mike

 

 

With using point in the yards you lose one module pre yard so you get 8 foot less scenics section with the CRM On30 modules which my Forks tressle is part of we use travsers heres a pic of them the boards are 4 foot & will take a 3foot 9 train on each line

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/39/entry-1430-the-yards/

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I'm sorry to come into the discussion late & I hope to not upset things - but could I suggest some form of cassette arrangement, with each person bringing stock to provide an appropriate cassette to house the train? It would then be a matter of racing the train down the layout to get the cassette to the recieving end before the train arrives...

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It would then be a matter of racing the train down the layout to get the cassette to the recieving end before the train arrives...

 

Sounds like a plan................. but I am not sure that Usain Bolt is into Model Railways ;)

 

It would mean a lot of work and people would all have to build the cassettes to quite an exacting standard to ensure they fitted, it was an early idea, but with this plan it will allow us to use the fiddle yards for other projects in the future

 

cheers anyway

 

PS are you gooing to build a module B)

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  • RMweb Gold

If the orange is all going to be one section, couldn't it be simplified to 2 (Y?) points back to back? This might save a bit of length, and wiring.

 

Please diisregard if if I've misunderstood the requirements involved..

 

Thanks

 

Dave

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If the orange is all going to be one section, couldn't it be simplified to 2 (Y?) points back to back? This might save a bit of length, and wiring.

 

Please disregard if if I've misunderstood the requirements involved..

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

 

That is a very good point (excuse the pun!) except I already have the points to make up the plan as shown, so to keep costs down as my pocket is already crying enough!, need to use what we have ;)

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Fair enough, you've obviously put some thought into this!

Can't commit to a module as yet, is there a deadline for a decision? Would an extra 4ft module be easy to accommodate?

 

 

No deadline yet :D and I am sure that we can squeeze you in ;) , we would love lots of modules

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If the orange is all going to be one section, couldn't it be simplified to 2 (Y?) points back to back? This might save a bit of length, and wiring.

 

Please disregard if if I've misunderstood the requirements involved..

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

I have had a look at your idea and yes it would be simpler and it would gain us about 8" extra siding length :D

 

Very rough plan

 

4point.jpg

 

I will Put it to the team and see what they think

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I have had a look at your idea and yes it would be simpler and it would gain us about 8" extra siding length :D

I will Put it to the team and see what they think

 

 

To late mate , just bought some points today , good second hand , 3 right hand and 1 left . :lol:

 

Anyway , whats 8'' between friends . :P

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Fair enough, you've obviously put some thought into this!

Can't commit to a module as yet, is there a deadline for a decision? Would an extra 4ft module be easy to accommodate?

 

Rich, as Tigger said, we'd love to have more modules. No commitment needed at this stage, but an intention to maybe build one is a good start.

 

Hopefully we'll get more offers soon...

 

Stu

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That is a very good point (excuse the pun!) except I already have the points to make up the plan as shown, so to keep costs down as my pocket is already crying enough!, need to use what we have ;)

 

In that case you could just lose the first and fourth set of points from the left, for the same effect.

 

Then the green and blue fiddleyard lines could use the freed up l/h point, to gain an extra point's length overall (Please excuse horrible editing of your image)

 

Dave

post-6902-0-83122500-1296416716_thumb.jpg

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A double slip is shorter (albeit more expensivesad.gif) than two turnouts laid toe-to-toe.

 

Another good sugestion but I personaly think I will stick with the original plan as I can use it for future projects as it will be a little more versitile when I use it with DCC. :)

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  • 5 months later...

Thought it was about time for an update as six months has already passed :O

 

Well the points are down and the seep point motors fitted. Today I started the wiring for the control panel. It looks a little scruffy at present, but it will do the job ;)

 

_DSC0227-1.jpg

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Thought it was about time for an update as six months has already passed :O

 

Well the points are down and the seep point motors fitted. Today I started the wiring for the control panel. It looks a little scruffy at present, but it will do the job ;)

 

 

 

 

Maybe I better bring the other ones down , you are certainly doing better than me at the moment . :umbrage:

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Apologies for not seeing this thread sooner, so this may be too late!

 

As the four tracks are running parallel to each other, have you thought of building that part of the FY as a 'Denny' yard (i.e. a complete section of 4 tracks able to be either reversed end for end or replaced with another one holding alternative stock). That's the arrangement I have on my 'Aberystwyth' layout - can provide photos if necessary - and which doubles as the FY for my 'Wallingford' layout. At some point in the future, I may build another one to enable interchange of stock for 'Aberystwyth' and potentially act as a second fiddle yard should I ever model Cholsey.....

 

Richard

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Photo of my 'Denny' FY, capable of storing and reversing 4 trains. I really must get round to adding the end stops...

 

On each end of the FY is a 9-way cable with a female D-connector which can be connected to a male on the adjacent board. Other than the reversal, no manual intervention is required as all the pointwork is on the next board. Plan is eventually to connect said pointwork to a computer to create a more modern 'Automatic Crispin'.

 

 

 

5903614117_58343c9347_z.jpg

 

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Hi Richard

 

Thanks for that. That has given me food for thought. I will have a chat with Sidecar Racer and see what he thinks

 

Thanks again

 

Mike

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