Locking Device For OO Scale Sector Plate

A sector plate is a great way to store and select rolling stock in a fiddle yard. The blog article "Sector Plates : A Space Saving Tip for all Scales" goes into the whys, wheres and hows in more detail, but one thing that isn't really covered is the provision of a locking device for the sector plate.

A locking device needs to be able to fulfill two important roles:

• prevent the sector plate from moving once the rails are lined up
• supply power to the rails on the plate

The reason for the second role is that the rails on the plate are separate from the main line, and since the sector plate moves, allowing selection between one or more lines, supplying power to the track on the plate might be an issue.

The plate itself can contain more than one length of track, and the tracks on the plate can feed one or more lengths of track. Probably the most common arrangement is to have an on-scene track run onto the sector plate, which is then used to transfer rolling stock from the plate to one or more tracks that are off-scene.

Less frequently, the rolling stock can be 'stored' on the sector plate, but this makes it a bit heavy to move smoothly due to the added weight.

When the tracks are aligned, they should be locked into place to drive the train on or off the sector plate, and one of the best ways to do this is to use a humble sliding bolt lock. These have different names in different countries, but you're looking for something that has a part that is usually fitted to a door, and a part that slides into it.

The idea is that this will both lock the sector plate, and hence the track, into place, and also provide circuit completion to supply power to the sector plate track. Of course, you still need to provide one side of the circuit fixed to the sector plate, but having the bolt provide the other is an easy way to complete the circuit connection.

Different gauges will use different size sliding bolt locks, but the technique ought to be good across all scales, with the bolt mounted under or on top of the baseboard. Luckily, because the sector plate is mainly a fiddle yard device, you shouldn't need to camouflage the bolt if you choose to mount it on top of the baseboard.