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An Cl?r - 2mm scale, 6.5mm gauge


2mmMark

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Here are some new photos of my piece of narrow gauge insignificance, An Clár. This has been around for a while now and as I'm about to modify it from its fairly basic end-to-end form into a continuous run, I took the opportunity to shoot off some photos this afternoon. The scenic area is a mere 600mm by 200mm with a simple cassette arrangement at each end. In practice, it's proved rather fiddly to operate, so with a 300mm diameter loop at either end, it'll be converted into an oval, with a passing loop at the back. This should make it less onerous to operate.

From left to right, here's some views of the scene
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Some of the stock which operates on the layout
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A final view of the entire scenic area
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Mark

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I can't take any credit for the backscene, it was painted by a talented 2mm modeller & artist in acrylics, David Eveleigh, who built the Framsden & Goldhanger layouts. I did watch David paint the scene and also took photos of the process step by step, which were sadly lost in a hard disk crash :scratchhead: because I hadn't backed them up. What I did do was get David to paint the backscene first and model forwards from it.

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Excellent evocative pics of of your Irish three-foot masterwork, Mark. Your modelling is inspiring, as always.

 

Actually, I quite liked the former "fiddly to operate" cassette arrangement, as it gave me something to do at shows, ha ha. Anyway, I look forward to seeing 'the plank' operationally reincarnated for its next outing. Oh, and I'm pleased to see the chimney's back on that brakevan at last!

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  • 4 weeks later...

That's beautiful delicate scenic colouring and lovely trackwork. Hard to believe it's 2mm scale.

 

You need to get a donkey instead of those combustion engine conthraptions.

 

The milk churns say this is dairy country but the scenery says beef to me (though you could well be right for the 1920s or 30s.) The Tralee and Dingle was mad for pigs, but I don't know about the West Clare.

 

Lovely little layout.

 

Alan

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...
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So, here we are, just a shade over 2 years later and I seem to have found a round tuit, prompted by the layout's forthcoming appearance at Zedex on 5th October.

 

As I mentioned previously, I wanted to replace the fiddly cassette arrangement with a continuous run.

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This needed a extension to the baseboard. First, the cassette alignment blocks, end stop  & wiring were removed and a sheet of 4mm ply was laid over the area to provide a base for the track that is to replace the cassettes.

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The track exits the scenic area at slight angles at either end, deliberately so, therefore the ply needed shaping to fit.  I nearly got it right but a touch of filler will hide a multitude of sins.

 

An extension at the rear was needed to hold the rest of the track. I didn't want to cut into the existing structure so I grafted on some robust fixing arrangements.  I do have a tendency to build robustly...

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This was pretty strong but I felt it wouldn't quite support another 6" of baseboard cantilevered from the original structure without flexing. So I added some bearers at the ends like so

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A simple rear extension of 6mm ply with 2" by 1" framing was made. Actually it was 2 bits of ply joined in the middle as I had some nearly the right size and it was easier than cutting into a brand new sheet. Some holes were made for the lighting & control cables and a tag strip screwed in place for future wiring.

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I've ended up with the following extended layout ready for track.

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Now I made a start on laying some track. For expedience, I'm using Marklin set track, which will give me an accurate 145mm radius loop.  To connect the set track to the scenic area I needed some lead-in track. I cut some Marklin straight track to length and cut the web to make it flex. The curve was set by eye and to keep things in place, some PCB sleepers were inserted. It's quite a but gentler than the 145mm radius elsewhere. 1/4" wide strips of plasticard were used to make sure different sizes and heights of track matched up. The visible track is code 40 rail on PCB sleepers, the Marklin track is code 60 rail.

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The track was glued & pinned in place. I used the "Easitrack" acrylic polymer glue as sold by the 2mm Scale Association. This has a very good "grab" of plastic track.

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Once the lead-in tracks were set in place I started attaching the curves. These had PCB sleepers inserted for wiring purposes and were also glued & pinned in place. The pins were inserted into predrilled holes and are a tight push fit. Best not to be using hammers around Z gauge track!  The pins themselves are tiny and easily bent.  The combination of the push fit and glue should keep things in place.

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Once the track is down, I checked the track using a longish wheelbase wagon.  Everything seems in order, so the job's a good'un.

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The next step is some more tracklaying to complete the circuit and passing loop.

 

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...
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So, the remaining track was laid in place, completing the circuit and passing loop.

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The inserted PCB sleepers make attaching the wiring simple. Each section of track has its own connection for reliability.  Everything is wired back to a pair of copper wire busbars which run nearly the length of the layout.  I like this system as it minimises the amount of wiring.

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I use a simple wiring colour scheme for track, red & black for the running rails and white for common sections which will be switched, such as crossings and in this case, the loop.

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The final result is thus:

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The Marklin turnouts are not self-isolating, so I had to provide an isolation gap to allow the passing loop to hold one train stationary while the other circulates. The points do have a rather useful feature in that they are sprung and can be run through in a trailing direction when set against a train.  This means the only thing to do in the fiddle yard is operate a slide switch, changing over which side of the loop is live.

 

I did encounter a strange short circuit on one side of the loop that had me baffled for a while, as the wiring was correct.  :scratchhead:  The fault was traced back to a piece of stray copper on one of the PCB sleepers in the loop.  Not before I'd removed & replaced some perfectly good wiring though... :banghead:

 

Test runs have proved successful and the layout is much improved operationally, as I'd hoped.

 

Mark

 

 

 

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Don, the reverse curve was needed otherwise the radius of the semicircle at that end would have been a lot tighter than I'd like due to the angle of exit from the scenic section. The reverse curve is thankfully quite shallow and so far, everything I have has run through without problem. I believe this was the lesser of two evils. As you might have gathered, the layout has evolved rather than been designed as such from the outset.

 

I'm taking it to Zedex on 5th October and then to ExpoNG on 25th October.  One thing I'm considering is making some screens for each end to reduce the view of the loop somewhat.

 

Working with ready-made track has been an interesting experience.  It has its plus points like speed of laying but it does constrain the design. Fortunately, this isn't an issue for off-scene track, function is more important in this application.

 

Mark

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Good progress, Mark. And nice neat work. Yes, deffo build the side screens! Maybe hosting a little display about what 'An Clar' represents and why you chose 2mm narrow gauge? 

 

One question: why the extra-long connecting loops on the baseboard surface for the track wiring?  

 

See you for Expo-NG in October! 

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One question: why the extra-long connecting loops on the baseboard surface for the track wiring?  

 

It's so that the wire isn't under undue stress from right-angle bends and follows a nice easy curve before going under the baseboard to connect up with the busbars.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Well, the revised layout made its debut at Zedex last Sunday and lived up to my expectations. It's very much nicer to operate, having got rid of the "fiddle with cassette, run 2ft then fiddle with cassette again" concept which proved rather irksome.  Last minute additions were some screens for the fiddleyard ends and some clear 4mm polycarbonate safety screens where the fiddleyard track is close to the edge of the baseboard.

 

It seemed to be well received by the public (along with the Pizza) and I picked up an invitation to exhibit both layouts at Wycrail in 2015. The next outing will be ExpoNG on 25th October at Swanley, Kent.

 

What's also pleasing is that everything fitted into the smaller car I have now (I downsized to a Sköda Roomster from a Mondeo estate) with relative ease.

 

Here are a couple of photos of the layout as set up:

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In one of the photos, some German metre gauge stock seems to have appeared. Rather a long way from home...

 

Anybody want some 6.5mm gauge cassettes?

 

Mark

 

 

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  • 8 months later...
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Mark, what did you use to acheive such wonderful greenery?

I'm hoping to make Killashandra look at least half as good.

 

-Cody F.

 

The basic grass layer is dyed surgical lint, with the nap of the lint pressed down into a layer of glue. then the material peeled off leaving behind the lint fibres which look like moorland grass.

 

Here's how the technique works

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/81391-lint-grass-supertest/

 

Lint is harder to find these days so static grass is maybe a better substitute.

 

Bushes, shrubs etc are then added using various materials from Woodland Scenics and other manufacturers.

 

Finally, everything was given a wafting with watercolour paint with an airbrush to blend it all in.

 

Mark

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  • 9 months later...

Wonderful layout, Nn3 is an obscure scale but what you have done is very good. 

 

Do you know who stocks the Peco rolling stock? :whistle:

 

Alex

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Wonderful layout, Nn3 is an obscure scale but what you have done is very good. 

 

Do you know who stocks the Peco rolling stock? :whistle:

 

Alex

 

Alex  - sorry for the late reply. I got my Peco kits directly from Peco themselves, contact them via the technical advice bureau.  Unfortunately they don't do z scale wheels, you'll have to source those independently, either as Marklin spares or Microtrains sell packs of moulded wheelsets.

 

Mark

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Alex  - sorry for the late reply. I got my Peco kits directly from Peco themselves, contact them via the technical advice bureau.  Unfortunately they don't do z scale wheels, you'll have to source those independently, either as Marklin spares or Microtrains sell packs of moulded wheelsets.

 

Mark

I ordered metal z gauge axles from plaza Japan for my stalled 2mm railcar the size of the box makes shapeways packaging appear small

 

Nick

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