PAGE 52 – AUGUST 2006

We can add complexity by inserting a runaround siding, called in the U.S. a “passing siding” and in the U.K. a “runaround loop.” This extremely popular design allows a single locomotive to handle switching chores in sidings facing both directions, located at the runaround siding or along the line. Add spurs to taste!A good example of this schematic in #44a is Steve Holland’s South Arpafeelie Mining Co., which is a compact twice-around layout with a single runaround siding. (The schematic plan is unaffected by the number of times the line circumnavigates the baseboard.)

Trains often originate in a backstage fiddle yard on the other side of the oval, as shown

in blue on this schematic. The visible switching area can represent a small town station, an industrial park, a single large factory, a mine, a quarry, or whatever else you can dream up!

The next advance in complexity is to add a branch line to the basic oval with runaround siding. Most often, this branch runs up and over, as shown here; but there’s no reason why it can’t run down and duck under — as if it were a branch from a mountain line that ducks down to serve a seashore industry.

Notice that John Allen’s original twice-around Gorre & Daphetid RR as well as Frary & Hayden’s Elk River Line (both shown in #4) follow this schematic. It’s extremely popular, and justifiably so–it provides remarkably good operation in a very small space!

Perhaps the most complex schematic possible in a small layout (under 4x6ft or 120x180cm) is this one, The Wyes Guy. It adds a branch line, reached by a wye track formation (a “delta” in Britain). The branch can lead to another station, an industrial location, or even (as indicated here) a backstage fiddle yard. A good example is Jonathon Scott’s Z-scale line in a suitcase, described in #34.

Jonathon has added a return loop (balloon) at the end of the branch line to streamline operations. This basic schematic enables very sophisticated operations, as well as a choice of continuous or out-and-back train routing.

This variation of the Here to There schematic puts the visible station in the center of the line, between two hidden fiddle yards. Trains can run through the scene to the other side and back again (after some fiddling). Pausing to switch cars at the midpoint provides lots of operating possibilities, and scheduled timetable “meets” are available in this option.

Some designs for the Passing Through schematic can be seen in #49a — in both Paul Gallon’s Fellburn and Sam Hyde’s design for a South Australian narrow-gauge station.

Needless to say, additional stations could be added in place of the fiddle yard at either end (or both ends!), producing a complete and workable railway line (and possibly growing beyond the limits of small layout design!). There are a number of good, smallish examples of this type of design in #49a as well as in #46. Chris O’Donoghue’s Nottery Quay is shown here.

Just the opposite of E2 is the schematic where the middle is hidden (perhaps housing a fiddle yard) and each end has a station. This can be a very interesting operating pattern if the fiddle yard is complex enough to furnish a variety of trains in both directions.

A very small and simple example of this schematic is François Fontana and Denis Fournier Le Ray‘s Les Tramways de Port Petiot à Fort Goffiot.

This schematic is the classic switchback [zig-zag] arrangement. Without the dotted spur, it’s a Fork pattern (E1); and with the spur, trains can travel a route from the fiddle yard to the station on the dotted line by backing and filling. The To and Fro switchback pattern provides a somewhat longer mainline run between stations at opposite ends of a very small space.

The best-known example is Chuck Yungkurth’s Gum Stump & Snowshoe RR, shown in #4 and featured with several variations in #38a. This classic layout plan climbs from a low-level terminus to a higher level station via a switchback arrangement that includes a very attractive overbridge. Ignacio O’Callaghan’s version is shown here.

Finally, this “shelf switcher full of track” can provide a large amount of shunting fun in the space of a bookshelf. There are many possible track arrangements for the All Yard layout, but most of them are variations of one sort or another on the schematic shown. A fiddle yard is often included (indicated in blue), but is not essential for good operation.

The grandaddy of nearly all these layouts is Linn Westcott’s Switchman’s Nightmare, shown in #4 along with John Allen’s Timesaver and C. J. Freezer’s Minories — the latter two being good examples of variations within the schematic. Jack Trollope’s classic Box Street Yard is another good example.

There have been many other excellent versions across the years, including recent examples by Stephen Christopher (#42 and #51), Eric Kirkland (#42) Fabrice Fayolle (#42 and #45a) and Jack Trollope (#45a and #47). Jack’s Ross County Shortline (shown here) is an interesting variation that substitutes a car ferry for the fiddle yard as a destination for cars being shunted off the layout.