Next time, do it properly!

This weekend I decided to change the fiddle yard area. The original was a bit of a bodge job... for starters I used 6mm MDF instead of 9mm that I used on the main board. This required me to build up a massive amount of cork underlay and also exasperated the difference in height which occurred from one end of the loop to the other.

The other issue I had was the inner siding and points combination. This combined with changing heights caused all sorts of problems with the locos - bad connections, derailments etc. It basically meant the siding was useless.

I removed all the track and cork from the board and then removed the board entirely, replacing it with a equal sized piece of 9mm MDF.

I then laid a single piece of cork sheet, with extra height on beach side as the attached extension board on that side is a millimetre or so higher.

The outer loop and siding was relaid as before. However the inner loop has undergone a transformation. The inner siding is now a complete loop, and the complication siding junction as gone and the siding feeds directly into the 3rd platform at the town side station from a a new curved point from the other side of the fiddle yard.



Whilst the outer loops are all radius two or great I have had to compromise with the inner most loop, using radius one curves. As the original inner siding was also radius one I don't see this as backward step, although its not necessarily a satisfactory solution either. But given the space it really is the only solution!

All the wiring has been redone (mostly reused, I only had to solder one more wire!) and connected, and the next step is to test the circuit and the locos for reliability.

New track plan...

Town Plan

A quick mock up of the town as currently planned in my head.

Upper town level

Last weekend I put on the upper town level for the scenery, along with fixing the backdrop separators in place. I also added a layer of cork to raise the platforms to the correct level. I'm not overly happy with fit of the platforms against the track - I'm not sure what happened between me measuring the platform sizes and placing them but with a little bit of hammer persuasion on the track it fits a little better now.




Seemed to have made a mistake (maybe) in the sizing of the upper town section as the narrow bit along the middle is a little too thin for my liking. Last time I guestimate!