riogrande5761 John Busby Hi all Fiddle yard UK English :- American Translation Staging yard. They are one and the same thing a place where trains are sorted made up and broken up before entering or after leaving the modeld part of the railway. They can be sceniced or un sceniced, visable or hidden single or double ended, small or large, track or cassets but what ever method is used The only difference between them is national origin and spelling. The fiddle yard is UK the staging yard is USA and as I said they both do exactly the same thing. So if you choose one you automaticaly have the other regards John I just returned from the UK and visited a prolific modeler with several operational layouts in his basement and on another night a club with a bunch of layouts above a auto shop. I was able to see examples of fiddle yards on many of those. I'd say the difference between fiddle yards and staging yards is size and capacity. The fiddle yards are usually much smaller and shorter in length due to the restrictions in space across the pond. So yes, technically they are the same and serve essentially the same purpose, but the the size and capacity is generally much less on a fiddle yard.
John Busby Hi all Fiddle yard UK English :- American Translation Staging yard. They are one and the same thing a place where trains are sorted made up and broken up before entering or after leaving the modeld part of the railway. They can be sceniced or un sceniced, visable or hidden single or double ended, small or large, track or cassets but what ever method is used The only difference between them is national origin and spelling. The fiddle yard is UK the staging yard is USA and as I said they both do exactly the same thing. So if you choose one you automaticaly have the other regards John
Hi all
Fiddle yard UK English :- American Translation Staging yard.
They are one and the same thing a place where trains are sorted made up and broken up before entering or after leaving the modeld part of the railway.
They can be sceniced or un sceniced, visable or hidden single or double ended, small or large, track or cassets but what ever method is used
The only difference between them is national origin and spelling.
The fiddle yard is UK the staging yard is USA and as I said they both do exactly the same thing.
So if you choose one you automaticaly have the other
regards John
I just returned from the UK and visited a prolific modeler with several operational layouts in his basement and on another night a club with a bunch of layouts above a auto shop. I was able to see examples of fiddle yards on many of those. I'd say the difference between fiddle yards and staging yards is size and capacity. The fiddle yards are usually much smaller and shorter in length due to the restrictions in space across the pond.
So yes, technically they are the same and serve essentially the same purpose, but the the size and capacity is generally much less on a fiddle yard.
I guess my staging yard is so small, I wonder, do I have to start calling it a Fiddle Yard, then?
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Fiddle yard, staging yard or storage yard - essential different sides of the same medal. All of these are places on our layouts where we "man handle" cars, locos or complete trains. The British prefer the term fiddle yard, as most of them are rather simple - a traverser, a sector plate or even just a cassette - requiring the good old 0-5-0 to do the switching, err shunting.
On my layout, it is a storage yard - the place to store trains on track. As I will run mostly unit trains, I won´t have to fiddle around with them.
Jim, Mark, and Ulrich all make good points here.
The concept varies across what is essentially a range of choices in terms of available space and the anticipated use. Rather like a layout can vary, don't you know? One size doesn't fit all, but may fit quite a few. They key is deciding how YOUR layout can benefit from using them. The point is to design them to augment your ops scheme, not because you "need" a fiddle or staging yard.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
NP2626 riogrande5761 John Busby Hi all Fiddle yard UK English :- American Translation Staging yard. They are one and the same thing a place where trains are sorted made up and broken up before entering or after leaving the modeld part of the railway. They can be sceniced or un sceniced, visable or hidden single or double ended, small or large, track or cassets but what ever method is used The only difference between them is national origin and spelling. The fiddle yard is UK the staging yard is USA and as I said they both do exactly the same thing. So if you choose one you automaticaly have the other regards John I just returned from the UK and visited a prolific modeler with several operational layouts in his basement and on another night a club with a bunch of layouts above a auto shop. I was able to see examples of fiddle yards on many of those. I'd say the difference between fiddle yards and staging yards is size and capacity. The fiddle yards are usually much smaller and shorter in length due to the restrictions in space across the pond. So yes, technically they are the same and serve essentially the same purpose, but the the size and capacity is generally much less on a fiddle yard. I guess my staging yard is so small, I wonder, do I have to start calling it a Fiddle Yard, then?
Call it what you like as long as it works it don't matter
Just remember unless its a fairly modern period UK railways used a lot of four wheeled freight stock so the yard doesn't need to be as big for that or the three or four coach trains that are the norm on UK model railways.
so it is natural that the UK version will be smaller
John Busby NP2626 riogrande5761 John Busby Hi all Fiddle yard UK English :- American Translation Staging yard. They are one and the same thing a place where trains are sorted made up and broken up before entering or after leaving the modeld part of the railway. They can be sceniced or un sceniced, visable or hidden single or double ended, small or large, track or cassets but what ever method is used The only difference between them is national origin and spelling. The fiddle yard is UK the staging yard is USA and as I said they both do exactly the same thing. So if you choose one you automaticaly have the other regards John I just returned from the UK and visited a prolific modeler with several operational layouts in his basement and on another night a club with a bunch of layouts above a auto shop. I was able to see examples of fiddle yards on many of those. I'd say the difference between fiddle yards and staging yards is size and capacity. The fiddle yards are usually much smaller and shorter in length due to the restrictions in space across the pond. So yes, technically they are the same and serve essentially the same purpose, but the the size and capacity is generally much less on a fiddle yard. I guess my staging yard is so small, I wonder, do I have to start calling it a Fiddle Yard, then? Call it what you like as long as it works it don't matter Just remember unless its a fairly modern period UK railways used a lot of four wheeled freight stock so the yard doesn't need to be as big for that or the three or four coach trains that are the norm on UK model railways. so it is natural that the UK version will be smaller regards John
I was pretty much funnin around, don't ya know!
NP2626I guess my staging yard is so small, I wonder, do I have to start calling it a Fiddle Yard, then?
So are you going to start calling potato chips crisps, and french fries ... chips?
Even before I married my British wife, I had heard that England and the US are two countries separated by a common language. I guess that means we both speak English but there are quite a few words we each have that are different for the same thing.
But having been to England, I have seen various examples of Americanisms which have caught on over there so who knows, maybe US model railroaders may start calling staging yards ... fiddle yards. I probably won't but my wife has caused me to adopt a number of sayings and terms from England and I have caught her switching to some American ones here and there!
After my last trip over recently, I finally realized why they call apartments flats. It's because they are apartments that are all on one level - hence flat in layout - not multilevel. They would also call a small home that is on a single level a bungalow. Most "houses" over there are more like what we would call a town house, where they are on 2 levels, or more, and all connected to the neighboring unit.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983