fold or lift up fiddle yard

[ThaneofFife]

Hope this is the right area to ask this unusual question.

 

Lack of space is giving me a headache in working out exactly how i can accommodate a fiddle yard successfully in a small studio apartment. I prefer my trains to be fixed formations averaging 9 coaches in length.the lack of room in my home means its not possible to build a fixed fiddle yard to store my trains so ive been mulling over the idea of either a simple fold away baseboard approx 3ft x 12ft thats hinged to one wall then folds almost flat against it (not any use if i want to keep stock on the track) or some kind of freestanding set up that is kept out of the way up near the ceiling but can be lowered down flat then supported by fold up legs or even trestles underneath.

Ive seen various pulley systems that store shelving and bikes etc above garage roof joists but nothing for layouts.

 

Can anybody give me any advice/pointers or even uf i could see pics where this has been done before it would be handy.

The fiddle yard would be hand operated and non scenic literally flat boards with track pinned down.

 

00 gauge but also still on the fence for switching to N gauge.

[raymw]

If you go for the raising system, you'll most likely have to fix at least half a dozen pulleys to the ceiling, and have some sort of slow release system on the ropes, so if you let go, it doesn't all come crashing down to the floor. You will most likely need a hole in the middle for the light fitting if you want it in the centre of the room. If you made a hinge up system, then you could make it hinged at, say, six inches from the wall, and shunt your trains onto that six inch shelf, before hinging the rest (2ft-6ins) to the wall. I think the hinged board would be simpler. You could drop in short lengths of track to bridge the hinge gap.

 

Best wishes,

 

Ray 

 

edit to half a dozen pulleys, instead of half a pulleys!

[clecklewyke]

Have you thought of a cassette system? Then only the cassette deck needs to fold up: the cassettes, with their trains, can be stored on shelves on the wall. It's an excellent system which I use on all my layouts, both fixed and exhibition. There are several threads on RMWeb about this - search "cassette".

 

The progenitor of the cassette fiddle yard is Chris Pendlenton and he wrote an excellent article on their design, construction and use in issue No 27 of Model Railway Journal. 

 

Good luck,

 

Ian

[shortliner]

For a 9 coach train, that's a heck of a big cassette!

[chris p bacon]

For a 9 coach train, that's a heck of a big cassette!

Especially in Gauge 1........

[ThaneofFife]

Ill have to look into the cassette idea. That may work.....

 

Im veering away from a fiddlr yard thats lowered on pulleys. I can see this having too much flex and if beef it up too much itll weigh a ton and increase the risk of it dropping......

[clecklewyke]

Have you seen Iain Rice's idea of using counter weights made of plastic bottles filled with water? Fine until the cord breaks...

[ThaneofFife]

Counter weights?

Ha.....ill give that a wide birth.....

[DCB]

Why not go the whole hog and have a vertical traverser, ok its fiendishly complicated but for a given length and width it provides tremendous storage potential. Just a thought.

[ColinK]

Have you seen Iain Rice's idea of using counter weights made of plastic bottles filled with water? Fine until the cord breaks...

Or until one of the bottles starts leaking!

[Izzy]

 

I would personally go for the cassette option simply because it gives the greatest flexibility over cassette/train length - you can have them at varying lengths if you need, and there is the further option to build into the design their use as storage boxes for the stock.

 

Logically, if you wanted to have a fiddle hinged to the wall, the it would have to be along the length rather than vertically, simply because with an average room height of about 8', fitting a long board in wouldn't be possible in one go, 5' max if the layout was 3' off the ground.

 

Izzy

[clecklewyke]

I think that if you are to build a heavy lifting baseboard counterweights will be essential. Iain's idea of using plastic bottles is excellent for exhibitions - less weight to put in the van - but at home more permanent weights could be employed.

 

But none of these are required if cassettes are used as the baseboard can be a simple sheet of 6mm ply with a framing of half inch square wood around its edges. 

 

The problem of long trains can be resolved by using multiple short cassettes  I have adopted a standard 2' length for my cassettes because of the original limited size of size of Clecklewyke's fiddle yards and run 7 coach trains with them.

 

Here's a picture of me talking (as usual) with a fiddle yard in the backgtound.

 

 

Longer cassettes are quite feasible and Chris Pendlenton's are quite long. Unfortunately all my MRJs are in storage after a house move so I cannot give an authoritative statement on this. But don't try to turn them round  as stock might fall off - have separate short cassettes for the locos. 

 

Ian

 

{This was written before seeing Izzy's posting. I don't like the idea of having different length cassettes. I think it is better to standardise on one length and make the stock box the right size to store them in.)

[unravelled]

How about a combination of some of the above. A vertically sliding rack, which would hold the long cassettes needed. Probably less engineering needed than for a full vertical traverser. It also can give a display if that's wanted. When I was considering such an idea I felt that a mechanism lifting from below was safest, and was looking at scissors jacks as positioners.

 

Dave