Fiddle yard track spacing

[ScottyStitch]

Just been measuring things up, looks like I'm gonna have about 14 or 16 inches of width for my storage yard. At a rough guess I may have enough room for either 10 or 12 roads. I'm going to space them fairly tightly to maximise train storage room, not bothered about finger gaps as I won't be reaching over to grab things unless derailments occur(hopefully they don't!!).
The layout is going to be roughly 70-75cm off the floor, giving me enough room to reach all the way over to the far side of the board if need be.
With medium radius points I should still have around 5 or 6 feet even in the shortest loop, which should be plenty for an 8 coach train plus loco or 22 or 23 wagons plus loco...

Chris

6ft will give you ten coaches and an engine.

[Wingman mothergoose]

Will it really? Sweeeeeeet!!!
That's about 25 ish wagons then?

Chris

[ScottyStitch]

Will it really? Sweeeeeeet!!!
That's about 25 ish wagons then?

Chris

Yes, my storage yard sidings are exactly two lengths of flexi track and they take a pacific and ten mark1s. Mark3s may only be nine? Might be nearer 30 wagons depending on the wagon. I could check for you when I get home tomorrow.

[Chetcombe]

I took a different approach than most of the posts in this thread in that I left enough space between each track to accommodate spare stock. This was partly due to the fact that I used Kato Unitrack in the fiddle yard, but also part by design as I find that I do tinker with the rakes of coaches and wagons a lot and appreciate the easy access. It makes putting stock onto the rails far easier than if I had crammed in as many tracks as I could have fit in to the available space.

[Wingman mothergoose]

Ok, so I've mow settled on a board 12" wide for my storage/fiddle yard, and at a glance that's enough for 10 roads at medium radius point spacing. I was thinking of incorporating my loco shed in this area too, but that's not now going to happen. Instead, I'm thinking of a loco storage siding or two at the leading end of each side, enough to stable 4 or 5 locos on each side so that I can change locos and create the impression of different trains when in fact its just the loco that has changed...
Also I'd like at least one crossover between up and down lines in the storage yards, to give some extra flexibility and also to have locos and stock appear to be returning from their destinations. Any thoughts please guys?
If anybody wishes to have a plan of my layout and fiddle yards to give them an idea of what I'm talking about, PM me your email address and I'll send it to you, as I'm rubbish at posting pictures on here!

Chris

[Newportnobby]

On my main layout I have 4 roads per direction in the fiddle yard. I did consider having a central 'shared' road but at the end of the day the fiddle yard is for.....erm.....fiddling so didn't bother as it doesn't take much fiddling to lift a loco from one track to another

[Wingman mothergoose]

I wanted to have it automated so I don't have to keep reaching over the layout to use the hand of God on locos, plus my roads are gonna be pretty close together and there won't be an awful lot of room for my fat sausage fingers!

[Newportnobby]

Must admit my tracks are a bit too close together and I don't consider my fingers to be large
It might be worth checking out Heathcote Electronics as I believe they do some sort of automated fiddle yard module.

[Wingman mothergoose]

Looks like I'm gonna have the shortest storage roads somewhere between 4 and 5 feet long, plenty long enough for a 25 wagons plus loco train? The longest storage roads are obviously the middle ones, and they will end up at just over 6 feet. So 10 tracks, 5 each side, with a trailing crossover at each end to permit sending trains back over to the other main line to give the impression they've actually been somewhere...
The trailing crossovers take up a fair amount of space, so I'm going to see if I can put one point on the inner curve to give me a bit more space in the yard...

Any thoughts?

Chris

[Newportnobby]

Here's a pic of my fiddle yards under construction if it's of any help.......

[Wingman mothergoose]

I'm thinking of using 3 way points and double slips to minimise the space taken up by the crossovers, any advice on DC wiring for the 3 way?