My friends know that I want to spend this summer making the scenery on my layout.

So, why have I spent the last 10 days building a fiddle yard?

Well, there is method in my madness. Before starting the scenery I need to make the backboards. However, the track leading to the fiddle yard will be very close to the backboards. I need to lay the track to the fiddle yard first, then position the backboards to ensure there is adequate clearance for the rolling stock. Then I can start on the scenery….

I decided to go for a simple cassette fiddle yard system. I, erm.., borrowed the design from Michael Campbell and used U section plastic trunking for the cassette. There are brass clips to connect the cassette to the track leading to the layout and provide power to the track.

The fiddle yard unit is connected to the layout using a couple of bolts and wingnuts. This will make it easy to remove for transport.

The track coming from the layout to the fiddle yard unit is curved. It was difficult to fix the rails so that they will stay in place and remain well aligned. In future, I will never connect a fiddle yard to a layout using curved track. It is straight track for all connections from now on.