Fiddle Yard

During an exchange of posts with Ed about Latton Street the subject of using guttering for fiddle yard cassettes came up. Given we are short of fiddle yard space on Setforth Junction for the vast amounts of rolling stock accumulated over the past 40 or so years this caught my imagination.
A rummage in the shed this morning produced a piece of square line guttering, so I decided to give it a try.
Firstly I checked that with twin tracks inside the guttering there was sufficient clearance – which there was, but don’t expect to get your fingers in there. I then removed 2 of the branch line fiddle tracks, and repositioned the third to give a little bit more room.


The lead ins were cut off level, and shimmed to give the same height as the track on the guttering. I had to slightly raise the far end of the guttering as the branch line fiddle yard isn’t braced as its only ‘temporary’ (just like the control panel was 16 months ago) so it’s not entirely level – and the guttering has been in the shed for nearly 5 years so my guess is that isn’t 100% straight either!





Mrs C had donated some double sided tape, so the track was affixed to the guttering, and ordinary rail joiners attached. This too is a temporary solution – clearly this won’t work for long, but to prove the theory it will do.

And after about 45 minutes work it works very well.





I tried manoeuvring the ‘cassette’ with the DMU plus Pannier and ‘B’ set, and the rigidity of the guttering is excellent – I thought there might has been a twisting tendency, but not the case. So I’m now off to purchase a 4m length of guttering and some guttering brackets for attaching them to the wall. I think a locating slot in the end of the guttering to ensure 100% alignment when putting into place is called for, and a better way of powering up the cassettes. I’ll put end stops on the far end of the guttering, and perhaps a simple gate mechanism at the ‘entry’ end when moving the cassette.
Another advantage is that the length of the cassette can encroach over the entry to the room which should allow 6 or 7 coach trains to be stored – I’m confident that handling something that long by one person won’t pose a problem due to the aforementioned rigidity of the guttering, and that the bracket will be on the fiddle yard wall anyway, so it’s only and up and down movement required, not around.

 

Thanks for some of the ideas and observations - all welcomed.

The clearance is going to be a function of the guttering dimensions - if the flat base of the guttering is any narrower than the bit I've used then it will be a problem. I should have a better idea of any issues this weekend when I try building a 'proper' one and powering it up. I liked Gormo's method on his cassettes but I don't have the raw materials or tools to do it that way. I have however been toying with an idea using some wooden clothes pegs and some bits of copperclad......... Lets see what the weekend brings!

 

Steve - you must have fitted end stops - don't fit the end stops, or put a downspout in halfway along

 

Quick update - got something working now that is reasonably reliable (and it uses clothes pegs ). Currently on the Mk3 version. Hoping to finish it off by Thursday with a Mk4, and I'll post some photos and a video.

Dave C.

 

Still working on the final version, but I’ve learnt a lot from this exercise. I can’t remember which version I’m currently on – there have been several since the last post! Issues encountered have been hinted at by others, but I believe my final version will overcome the majority of them, and those that remain will not pose a significant problem for me in terms of how I intend to use them, which is infrequently for stock rotation.
Mk4 involved guttering brackets on both the fixed lead in and the end of the guttering in an attempt to improve alignment, primarily power connectivity.



That failed in that the available space for the lead in was inadequate and the incline to guttering change of angle gave track pick up issues to anything other than Bo Bo diesels and 0-4-0 locos. The power connectivity between the cassette and the layout was using copperclad glued to the sides of the guttering, and a clothes peg with copperclad glued to the prongs.





That worked very well – it needed a ‘stop’ glueing to the guttering to aid positioning, but then I thought if I changed the orientation of the copperclad on the guttering sides to vertical, the clothes peg would form a ‘H’ and that would result in better connectivity and less need for accuracy in positioning of the peg – not the case! Connectivity was far worse.
At that point I decided that plug and sockets connections would be far better, and spent some cash on 2 sockets and 6 plugs, which more than doubled to material cost of the project (the guttering and brackets having cost £15). Mind you, given my infrequent use of the cassettes I suspect that just using the rail joiners would have sufficed. I know one of the sockets looks very close to the track – it is, due to the batten underneath the plywood, but so far I’ve not had any stock catch it.


I removed more of the guttering ‘clip’ on the brackets that would be used to store the cassettes. Any positive location proved to cause some derailments of stock when lifting off the storage bracket.



Getting 6/7 coach stock up the 1:40 branch line incline also proved interesting. However, my Lima Class 20 now has a real purpose – its heavy weight and 4 traction tyres make short work of hauling stock up.

I also had problems with the double sided tape not holding the track in place (it was a temporary solution anyway) so I fixed the track down using small domed screws which slightly protruded from the bottom of the guttering, thereby giving another aid to location with a groove in the plywood.



I would also strongly recommend using set track rather than flexi at the join as the rigidity of the plastic aids positive location with the screws. I will do a ‘lessons learnt’ list when I finish the 3[sup]rd[/sup] and final cassette, which should be this weekend, and I'll post a video of it all working