Compact Fiddle Yard for 16.5 mm Gauge

[shortliner]

Martin - I can assure you that there is no way you would want to be modelling in MY garage between Mid-October and the end of March, up here in the Highlands of Scotland - think about Brass Monkeys and Welding Torches - even if I could squeeze a 16' x 2' layout in there without one end hanging out the door and being unable to open the car door to get out of it!

[47137]

Rewinding a bit:

The turntable well is a bit too deep for 1:76 scale, so if I finish the sides of the well with brickwork at a nominal 1/64 scale, it will become a 64-foot deck in a scale well. Only an HO loco would look really out of place, but I haven't got any of these, only coaches.

 

How things can change - the layout is now very much an H0 affair, with occasional 00 visitors, and the fiddle yard is usually full of H0 stuff.

 

I've had the fiddle yard in use for two years now. The only significant mod, which happened soon after I built it, was to change the power transformer for one with a lower voltage secondary windings, from 16 + 16 to 9 + 9 volts. This was to stop the linear regulators (these drive the Tortoise point motors on the main layout) getting so hot. The same transformer provides the power to the two controllers as well (both analogue DC), so layout operation is a pretty sedate affair now, most locos manage a scale 20 to 30 mph with the H0 ones being at the upper end of this range. H0 is better than 00, the trains go faster :-)

 

This week I've rebuilt the "unused" spur from the turntable to add a connection for Train-Safe tubes. I got my introduction to these on the APT-E thread about a year ago, when the APT models started to arrive.

 

This is my new spur, with the track adaptor supplied by Train-Safe:

 

The grey surface here is soft foam to reduce damage to the tube.

 

This is a support bracket I have made, fitted on top of a camera tripod:

 

And this is the tube in place:

 

I can drive a complete train out of the tube, across the turntable and onto the layout:

 

Taking the access across a turntable isn't ideal but it is the only route available for me taking into account the walls of the room and the furniture next the layout. The magnets holding the turntable in alignment (one of my early posts here) are still working well, so the arrangement does actually work.

 

The Train-Safe tubes come in different lengths, This is a 1.2 metre one, it will hold a mainline loco and four coaches or largish wagons in H0. This is rather longer than a train for a typical micro but my layout has grown and this is currently the only length of tube I have. Shorter tubes are available, and a 600 mm tube would hold a branch line loco and two-coach train for H0, or a 2-car dmu for 00. I suppose, I could also use a tube as a temporary storage road, or to increase the length of a journey available on the layout.

 

No connection with Train-Safe except as a satisfied customer, but these tubes do reduce the handling of stock a great deal. They also make a nice display hung on the wall.

 

Hope this is of interest.

 

- Richard.

Edited April 30, 2017 by 47137

[47137]

My second change for the fiddle yard has been to rebuild the "though route" at the back of the fiddle yard. This was a siding laid in Peco 'bi-block' (code 75) flexi track, the idea here was to set the scene for a tramway-style extension. Unfortunately, Fleischmann wheels ran along the rail fixings as well as the rails on the bi-block track, and it was easier to replace the track than all the wheels. (These wheels are ok on Peco code 75 FB track with wooden sleepers, and indeed on SMP and Exactoscale BH track).

 

I had some Kato Unitrack for Christmas and I am totally sold on this for the next extension to the layout - no ballasting, and you can lay it loose on top of a narrow plank and lift it to use again. So I have rebuilt the "through route" with a piece of Kato straight track.

 

A general view with the new track loose:

 

I had to cut a rebate in the baseboard so the Kato track ended up level with the existing track. I made two long cuts with a Stanley knife, then pared out the middle with a chisel. This was easier than I expected, the glue between the layers of plywood helped me to stay reasonably flat:

 

This is the Kato track. I have taken one straight track and cut it into two pieces, then turned the two pieces turned round. The longer piece is fixed to the baseboard. The shorter piece finishes off the track as a siding:

 

Or I can clip on a longer straight to take the track onto an extension:

 

This is the joint between the Kato track and the rest of the fiddle yard. I have joined it onto an offcut of Tillig track, which is also code 83:

 

I fixed up a bit of ply to make a short extension, to see what it would look like:

 

There is space in the room for a plank a few inches wide and most of 8' 6" long. This would take the total running length up to about 24 feet - over a third of a scale mile in 1:87 scale. So I have the original "Shelf Island" in the middle, either one or three micro layouts depending on how you see it, and 24 feet of "main line" running through the middle of it. Which makes for different sorts of operation.

 

I will be content with the layout as it is, while I work out how to best build the extension. A buffer stop would be a good idea.

 

- Richard.

Edited April 30, 2017 by 47137

[ColinK]

I like your idea using the trainsafe and a tripod. I might use that on my layout.

[47137]

The tripod seems to be "safe" i.e. secure. I drilled a 5mm or so hole in my wooden bracket and screwed the tripod into it. A refinement would be a larger hole with a mating nut glued in. I suspect a 1/4" UNC or possibly Whitworth will fit.

 

- Richard.