There are many variants on OO gauge fiddle yard plans, and a lot of possible pitfalls. This article aims to sum up the considerations, and give a few examples of fiddle yard designs to help you avoid mistakes and inspire your own designs.
What is a Fiddle Yard?
There are two kinds of fiddle yard: the scenic fiddle yard and the off-scene fiddle yard.
For small layouts, a scenic fiddle yard is often used; it is either part of the layout that is not being employed in the running scenario, or plays an active part. For example, carriage works can be an excellent place to store lots of wagons!
The problem with a scenic fiddle yard -- which is often seen as an advantage! -- is that it is always visible, and as such needs to look reasonably prototypical. The design is therefore pretty important, as besides modelling a real siding, the fiddle yard needs to get the most out of the space required. After all, it represents the rest of the railway network.
Off-scene fiddle yards take more space, but can usually hold a lot more stock because they can be designed with storage efficiency in mind, rather than prototypical appearance.
Effectively, they aren't part of the layout itself, and as such also do not usually need to be ballasted, or otherwise decorated. However, you need to remember that they have to be accessible, and automated as far as possible to prevent them becoming more time-consuming than is absolutely necessary. So, for example, there's no point thinking about the lack of realism in using uncoupling ramps: nobody will see them anyway, so use the most reliable, speedy and appropriate uncoupling method that is available.
Fiddle Yard Mistakes
The first mistake I made was in forgetting that although my own layout is an oval, the sidings have created a situation known as 'facing sidings' and I failed to provide a run-around facility when installing the scenic fiddle yard.
This means that once wagons are shunted into a siding, they can only ever be pulled out, which then traps the locomotive at the other end, as there is no way for it to uncouple, run around the train, and push into the opposite sidings.
My advice: always provide a run-around if your fiddle yard creates facing sidings.
The next mistake I came across recently at a show, where there was a very deep fiddle yard (some 10 lanes), and the last lane was up against a wall.
This meant that when the inevitable happened, and the carriages jumped the points at the far side, it was next to impossible to reach across to fiddle the train back onto the tracks!
So, my advice: don't go for deep fiddle yards, make them long, and segmented with switchback arrangements instead.
Finally, I have an issue with track spacing in my fiddle yards; again because I wanted to get as much rolling stock in as possible.
My advice is to stick with 'standard' track spacing, because even if you use express points (the longer ones), there is always the risk of collisions in a small space designed for high frequency shunting and fully loaded sidings that run right up to the mouth of the points.
How to Make a Fiddle Yard?
Usually, fiddle yards are created with lengths of track (I tend to use offcuts, but these can be unreliable) and points that give access to an entirely symmetrical and hence fairly unrealistic collection of 'lanes' containing rolling stock.
In many cases, it bolts on to the scenic section of the layout. Access can be hidden behind buildings, or through tunnels, to disguise the fact that the 'rest of the railway network' is just a storage and retrieval system for carriages, wagons and locomotives!
If you are really pushed for space, then this article on Fiddle Yards for Small Spaces also looks at sector plates and traversers as a way to reduce the space required.
For those unfamiliar with the concepts, a sector plate is just a reduced turntable with a pivoting track that gives access to difefrent 'lanes', whereas a traverser involves sliding a piece of track either horizontally or vertically to give access to 'cassettes' containing rolling stock.
Making fiddle yard cassettes yourself is a time-consuming process, but the Nelevation Nelevator product provides an expensive, if extremely elegant solution.
There's also only really one book on the subject: the excellent 'Designing and Building Fiddle Yards' by Richard Bardsley, which is available as a paperback and Kindle book.
For further insights into fiddle yard design, model rail enthusiast, and writer,n Stephen Chapman has a page all about fiddle yard plans.
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