Sunday 3rd November 2013

Another long gap between postings, but things are moving along with the layout.

Following our decision to get rid of the two turn-table fiddle yards and go for a "roundy-roundy" with fiddle-yard at the back and an operating well, the old wood-working skills have been called into play again.

The first 4 fiddle yard boards are now completed - they will be hinged together in pairs and a fifth board will sit between them to match the full length of the front of the layout.  Allen has built the first of the corner units - three small boards that turn the trains through 180 degrees.  This meeting was the first time we could put the curves into place, and then lay the track across.

 The first image shows (from back to front) the first fiddle-yard board and the three corner boards.  The middle one is hinged to allow access - we are not all young enough now to crawl under the layout.

The second view shows the link to the scenic boards.  In the foreground is the new "trestle-bridge" board and the two lines are shown merging at the turnout.


Finally, here is a video of the first train to travel around the new track (can you see why we used the front line and not the rear one!)