The dangers of track going to the edges of a shunting plank layout.

[relaxinghobby]

The trouble with a small shunting plank layout, especially one where the track goes all the way up to the edges, so that maybe extensions can

be added later is that a train can over run the edge and plunge into the abyss below.

 

So until such a time when the tracks do run on to the next base board I've made little doors to slide over the track ends and prevent a terrible

accident of broken models when they crash down and hit the floor.

 

Door up showing end of track.

Small round headed screws used to make a slide in pocket for the door which is 4mm plywood or MDF.

 

View down short tunnel, inside of door is painted a dark colour so that the tunnel is kept dark as seen from the scenic side.

 

T'other end I tried a rotating 'up' door.

[newbryford]

Although your solution is neat, could it not be simplified?

 

Do you actually need to use the doors until the extensions are built?

If you're using the layout without the extensions - particularly as in "not built yet", why not simply screw a blank panel over them, rather than having the doors?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[lordhinton]

why not just put a removable piece of rail across to stop things falling level with the buffers...

 

 

dan

[mobi323]

This is a good idea. I would like to see it from the operational side.

[witherbrow]

a great simple idea i like it dont have the space for a layout anymore but if the time comes ill remember this

 

do you have a pic of the loco in the 3rd pic? it looks like a pug to me - and im about to repaint mine

[relaxinghobby]

Hi thanks fro the comments.

 

I'll try to answer your questions and give the reasons for why I did it the way I did.

 

I had the screws and bits of ply to hand so I used them.

 

I used a solid block instead of say a length of rail because I wanted to block out the any light coming through the tunnels

so that from the scenic side the tunnels would appear dark and tunnely,

 

The layout is only 4 foot long and during shunting with any loco larger than a 4 wheeled pug it's easy to drive beyond the edge

and now I have some scenery it's difficult to quickly reach over and catch a falling train.

 

I think the giveaway tunnel of light effect you see in many photos of layouts is a breakdown in the attempt to represent reality,

and the light streaming from a model tunnel mouth reminds me of some sort of science fiction portal to another world.

 

Which it is for our models, it's another world, a pathway to the limbo of the fiddle yard.

 

I used wood and screws as I understand how to use the technology, also I am developing some short cassette fiddle yards that

I hope will easily hook onto the end of the layout for shunting and changing trains. So I wanted some sort of barrier that is easily

removable and changeable as I still have to work out how to attach the little tray type fiddle yards.

 

The loco is an attempt to model a Southhampton Docks 4 wheeled pug, the body is part Airfix kit and part scratch built.

It rides on a High Level replacement chassis kit for the Hornby LMS pug,with 100:1 reduction gearing and flywheel the H.L chassis is a really slow

drivers engine.

 

And it has a North British Railway type wooden wagon tender to give extra pickup capability.

[witherbrow]

sounds like a good littleproject i may have to invest in the Dapol kit and one of hornbys raiilroad 0-4-0's

[Donw]

I like your solution as it could be handy to add short cassetes sometimes (exhibitions?) and then forget there is nothing there another time. Regarding the light issue I agree that this can be a problem. Often a light is needed in the fy/cassette area (especially if you use 3-links) this should be angled away from the exit/emtry point a bit of card forming a shade ( a bit like a cap peak) can help or a shutter that is lifted only to allow movement in and out. It looks a bit odd if a train set up ready for the next move is visible whilst you are moving something on the layout.

Don

['CHARD]

... the light streaming from a model tunnel mouth reminds me of some sort of science fiction portal to another world.

 

 

Brilliant!

[newbryford]

 

I used wood and screws as I understand how to use the technology, also I am developing some short cassette fiddle yards that

I hope will easily hook onto the end of the layout for shunting and changing trains. So I wanted some sort of barrier that is easily

removable and changeable as I still have to work out how to attach the little tray type fiddle yards.

 

.

 

I would suspect that the "bottom stop" screw in the 1st and second photos would need removing before adding extra tracks. I would still go for two screws and one piece of ply painted black.

 

If you're set on doors, I would suggest a rotaing door with the pivot directly above the track. With the screw just tight enough to hold the door in the vertically open position above the tracks when you add the fiddle yard.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[relaxinghobby]

sounds like a good littleproject i may have to invest in the Dapol kit and one of hornbys raiilroad 0-4-0's

 

It's the High Level Chassis kit under the pug which makes the diffrence, that's the smaller of the two Hornby pug types,

here are some more photos;

 

Overbridge in distance shows barrier down.

 

Pug in front of tunnels, doors open, you can see the rest of the room beyond, unrealistic and dangerous for the rolling stock.

 

Close up of the pug, Highlevel chassis and it's built in 100:1 gearbox, so it's sllooooow....... Dapol/Airfix kit provides the tank and chassis, scratch built plastic smokebox and at the other end a metal cab, Based on the Southhampton Docks Vulcan tanks which were an ancester of the LYR and LMS pugs as modelled by Airfix/Dapol/Hornby.

 

The wagon tender is all plastic card and brass W irons and bits of wire for hand grabs, gives a usefull extra four wheels of electrical pickup.

 

The crew must have nipped off for a cuppa' ?

[relaxinghobby]

 

Siding extender, a small clip on box to hold a short length of track to enable longer tender engines to do some shunting, could be considered to be a mini fiddle yard.

[sb67]

Looks like a good layout, any chance of some more details and pics please?

[relaxinghobby]

 

The above add-on fiddle yard needs some track, the only track I have lying around is some left over self build stuff which matches in height the PECO code 75 used on the rest of the layout.

 

In the photo you can see circuit board copper-clad sleepers, my original home made track gauge, made from hard board it protects your fingers from the heat of the soldering iron. It's just two junior hacksaw cuts in the edge at 16.5mm apart.

A more recently aquired metal track gauge and a home made cardboard sleeper spacing gauge, no expense spared. The spacing is a bit large at 16mm or4 ft in 4mm scale, it should be about 10mm spacing for pre-grouping era track.

 

You can just see at the top a reel of electrical flux cored solder which can be slices into 1.5mm long slugs to make each soldered sleeper to rail joint and you can also see I've gapped each sleeper with a small saw cut to electrically isolate each rail.

 

I've scrubbed the new piece of track in soapy water ready for painting.

[relaxinghobby]

The fiddle yard add-on is now tracked and added on. Painted a dark colour to add the illusion that when a train is leaving the layout it going into a tunnel.

 

 

Train about to leave the layout.

 

 

Train having just left the layout.

[witherbrow]

brilliant work

[relaxinghobby]

 

Wiring added to bring power to the mini demountable fiddle yardette using a lead from an old PC mouse, from when they had the 9 pin D type plug, remember them ?

 

And a new socket from Maplins the electronic gadget shop.

 

This socket was mounted in a hole from the inside so it is almost flush with the outer case of the layout.

[shortliner]

Cheapest run-off preventer? I use a 4" length of clear plastic, cut from a food tray, and of a width to fit between sleepers. Fold it in half in the centre, and then fold the ends on each side up to meet the centre fold, forming a "W" shape. When laying the siding insert the plastic from under the sleepers (ties) with the centre fold upwards and use a couple of track pins through the ends into the baseboard to fix it in position. It forms an almost invisible buffer. and stops rolling stock from "gravity switching" Cost? Free! Tight? Me? Nah!

[DLT]

Close up of the pug, Highlevel chassis and it's built in 100:1 gearbox, so it's sllooooow....... Dapol/Airfix kit provides the tank and chassis, scratch built plastic smokebox and at the other end a metal cab, Based on the Southhampton Docks Vulcan tanks which were an ancester of the LYR and LMS pugs as modelled by Airfix/Dapol/Hornby.

Lovely loco, I've not come across these, although I'm familiar with the Southampton B4s.

Please can you tell us a bit about the interesting van in the background? It has quite an Irish look about it.

 

Thanks very much,

Dave.

[relaxinghobby]

The loco is a model of a Southhampton Docks shunter, I'll have to do a topic on it in Kit and Scratch building.

 

The van is a Tralee and Dingle from a Parkside Dundas kit adapted to 00 guage see:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37375-converting-009-to-00/page__pid__509085#entry509085