Fiddle Yard idea

I have only just found time to read the latest Scalefour News and found the article by Bryan Johnson on his Thurstaston project very interesting. He has already spent many years collecting and building locos and stock while continuing with researching the site. Something that I wish I had been able to do. What I did find really interesting was his thoughts on fiddle yards. Like myself he is proposing the cassette style fiddle yard and like myself he has freight trains that travel in one direction though the layout that need to be returned to their starting point behind the scenes.

My decision for a cassette style fiddle yard was made for two main reasons:

1) saving space,

2) the need to swap full/empty clay stock between fiddle yards behind the scenes.

Though I am worried about walking stock between the fiddle yards I could not think of another way to move the stock from one end of the layout to the other. But Bryan is suggesting installing a hidden track behind the back screen. What a thought.... Could still use cassettes but then slide the cassette across the board to align with the track that runs behind the layout. This would help avoid the catastrophe of a dropped cassette, containing eight or more precious hard to replace Ian Kirk clay wagons, while moving them between fiddle yards. Need to look at how this can be incorporated into my baseboards but I do like it.

Nice one.