The plan for my layout doesn’t include a fiddleyard, but they’re handy to have to store trains and rolling stock off-scene. Since I don’t intend to run a whole lot simultaneously, I figured I put in a small hidden fiddleyard. Normally you’d have to accessible to swap out rolling stock, but again, I don’t intend to run a whole lot of variety on this layout, so a hidden inaccessible one should be fine for my needs.
So the board is a simple rectangle, so I didn’t take additional photographs on how it is constructed. It sits upon 4 supports attached to the benchwork, which have been fixed in place with the board sitting on-top (without being fixed down to these supports) to make sure that it sits level. Test placing the points on top of this board made it obvious that I didn’t have enough length to store my intended trains (the longest I’ll run is a 2-6-2 tank engine with 4 4-wheel coaches in tow, which comes in at roughly 45cm). So the points on the left have been moved further to the left and unto the loopback board. Incidentally this means that I need 3 points on the left as the last one will connect back to the loop to be able to use it as a reversing loop for my harbour board (more on this board later, you can occassionally see it in some photos though!)
Fixing the points down, and putting the first piece of track of the fiddleyard in, it was time for a test. Not shown in the photos is a small S-bend right before the points on the left. While it is absolutely delightful to see my 2-6-2 Jeep run, the test running made it painfully obvious that one point was faulty. Circled in the red you can clearly see that it doesn’t switch all the way… I’ve tried repairing this point, but sadly enough it didn’t work. The arm that throws the blades of the point simply didn’t have the right angle to throw it far enough, and bending it enough so that it did just moved the problem to the other side…So I did the only proper thing I could do; take up these 3 points, replace the faulty point… and take out the S-bend by using a left-hand point instead of a right-hand point to go into the far-track of the fiddleyard.
So there is still work to be done on the fiddleyard. There is more track to be put down, put terminal blocks in to wire these tracks up to my controller and ofcourse, run more trains!
So a problem I’ve had is that I put my station platform in the middle of my table. While that is a nice focal point, trying to fit any sort of loopback in proved to be very difficult.. maybe impossible? The only realistic solution was to move the station platform over to the right. The benefits of this change were just too many to ignore; I can fit a loopback on the lefthand side, I can remove the loopback from sight with the backscene which coincidentally reduces the amount of resin I need for the water as well as making it easier to put in the illusion that the cliffs don’t protect the pier too much from the ocean.
I didn’t get a shot in of the platform after I moved it, but here is a pretty boring? view of the loopback board. I could’ve made a curved platform a bit wider than the track to better use the open frame benchwork, but that space always comes in handy to store something… and it has other benefits for someone like me whose plans are still evolving, more on that later.The 2mm thick cork trackbed was glued down using copydex; smells dreadful but surprisingly good for the job as it is a rubberised glue. The cork was roughly fitted to fit the curve of the track (9″ radius fleischmann set-track that I already had) with the idea that it will be trimmed around the track later on.
And once more with the track fitted. The track had its fishplates removed and new ones fitted, to which I’ve soldered the dropper wires. There is a pair of dropper wires between two curves, and those two sets are connected together with metal fishplates. The point is powered solely through the fishplates and isn’t directly connected to dropper wires, this is partly due to where it sits on the loopback board and a sense that I’m alright relying on the lesser electrical connection there. The track to the right of the point is flexi-track. As you can see in the photo’s, it sticks out from the baseboard to connect to the station platform. This was planned, and while the connection and wires may look fairly weak, because both boards are firmly mounted to the bench there isn’t any stress in this joint; despite this, moreso to mount a small covered section over the track to model the tunnel, I’ve mounted a support piece in between the two boards.
I use these terminal blocks underneath the boards to wire in the dropper wires from the track. I’m not a 100% sure yet how I want to wire things exactly, and it never hurts to give yourself options down the line. So here I made a couple of wires with crimped on connectors to easily connect the station platform and the loopback board to my DCC controller. Because, after all, it is about running a train, even if it is a small stretch and you have to reverse back!
So the third and final woodworking project is… something that I’ve wanted to do for probably 10 or so years now. Benchwork for my trains! I’ve decided to go for the L-Girder technique, as I like the idea of having full control and having access to everything from the bottom. That, and it’s easy enough to construct.
As you can see, the drop trap I built to start of the woodworking projects is in the background. And despite the look of it, it’s really sturdy! Just one slight problem, even though it fits through the door, turns out that the doors upstairs are 1″ slimmer… and it just barely doesn’t fit through them. So… lets break out the saw and try again…
Decided to make it 20cm slimmer, and to be honest, I’m happier that the top cross-bars are lower so I can more easily connect wires to another bench in the future.
Top bars were shortened slightly (by 10cm) so it’ll still fit through the (slightly slimmer!) upstairs doors, for when I eventually move.
Aaand that’s half of the bench already covered. Plus I’ll need to turn it a bit to be able to make the track of the station be able to loop back. But I reckon that’ll be fine and add a bit more interest to the whole thing. The track in the foreground is a slightly altered version of Glenderg’s design from the IrishRailwayModeller.com forums. I moved the engine shed and added a goods shed to add a bit more scenic interest to the design, with the doors facing the front instead of hiding it in the back of the building facing the station.
Oh, and the storage space underneath? Yeah, funny how quickly that fills up with all sorts of stuff.
Not quite a model railway thing, but recently I was asked if I could build a Drop Trap by my partner. Now this is mostly a simple piece of woodworking.. problem is, I didn’t have any wood.
And I suppose that is where the tie in with the model railway comes in; I didn’t have any wood for a model railway table either!… or.. for the hydroponics, which I have wanted to build a mobile trolley for for a while now. And I imagine you can see where this is going; it was the perfect excuse to borrow a van to purchase some wood from the local builders supply for my building endeavors!
So a little bit poorer but richer in building materials, I banged together this trap. It’s stone age technology really, but apparently the most successful design for catching kitchens. Neatly fits in my partners boot with the seats down, nice and light so it isn’t a hassle to carry even for a single person but heavy enough to not have to worry about kitties escaping. What you’d call, simple but effective.
Just attach a string to the little ringlet on the brace and pull if you want the trap to come down. And no sooner than when I finished it, it was whisked away for duty.
