Jan W

Tom, those look wonderful and it’s almost unbelievable that one can produce such trackwork on a small printer at home! One observation though: it seems the webbing between the sleepers is quite high, is there enough space to cover it in ballast? Jan

Do you know what track voltage your dcc system gives? If it is around 16V or maybe more, could it be an idea to try to reduce it to approx. 12V? Safer for the capacitors. The zener still limits the voltage on the capacitors to the max. value. Jan

The caption was: A view of ‘Copenhagen Fields’ on display at the Warley Show. No further reference to the photographer. Jan

I like it, pm sent. Jan

You’ll need a flangeway of 0.7mm minimum because N gauge flanges are approx 0.5mm wide. Jan

Tom, I happen to have an almost finished chassis for a Farish SECR C class. I bought the C class as spare parts without the chassis with the intention to build a 2FS chassis for it. I never finished the finescale layout so I tried to make it run on N gauge trackwork with the finescale wheels I also bought for it. This was when I still had trackwork to NMRA standards (0.7mm flangeways) but I abandoned the idea of using it when I converted the layout to accept RTR stock out of the box. Maybe I’ll reconsider after the tests I just did. Here are some photos I just took on the N gauge layout with 0.85mm flangeways and a BTB of 7.9mm. There are definitely some pitfalls. Here you see the wheel hanging in the air. It works as long as the center of gravity is above the center driver. Flangeways are 0.85mm so you can imagine that the gap on Peco track (1.2mm flangeway on the crossing) is A LOT bigger. This is what happens if the center of gravity is above one of the first or last driver. The wheel falls into the gap and lifts the flange of the driver on the opposite side of the chassis off the track. (Here the rear left falls into the gap lifting the front right flange above the rail). Using a BTB distance of 7.9mm gives enough clearance on the crossing. It can work as long as you can keep the center of gravity above the center drivers. Can be a challenge but it’s up to you if you want to try it. A cheap way to try if a chassis can work on Peco track is to make a chassis of evergreen square channel (6.4mm I think), drill 3 holes through it at the correct dimensions for the loco you want to build and put 3 axles with wagon wheels in it. PM me if you want a few axles (at the expense of p&p from the netherlands) Jan

I have tried to run 6-coupled locos with 2FS wheels on scratchbuilt n gauge track to NMRA standards and it works on normal track and standard points. However it won’t work on more complex pointwork like 3-way or double slips. But this was on track with flangeways of 0.7mm where Peco track has flangeways of 1.2/1.3mm. In the end I decided to convert the layout (just four points) to standard N gauge so I can run stock straight out of the box. This also means that I have to build new chassis for some locos using Farish or Dapol wheels that are available as spares. My advice: if you want to keep using your code 55 trackwork accept that the wheels have to be a bit coarser and use standard N gauge wheels for your locos. Modern wheels don’t look bad especially if you keep in mind that they are tiny when in use on the layout and not blown up in a photo like in this link: https://www.ngaugenews.com/post/new-efe-n-gauge-j94-liveries-and-additional-pba-wagons-announced Jan

I’m afraid that the finetrax system still has oversized flangeways. The rail section (code 40) may be to scale but the flangeways are still quite generous. Problem is that the back to back dimensions of rtr rolling stock is set to work well with the coarse standards of the mainstream railsystems. Often approx 7.3-7.4mm In order to allow stock with these back to back dimensions to traverse the finetrax points the flangeways have to be approx 0.85 mm if I’m correct. On the finetrax website you can download printable templates, you can then compare them with your code 55 points. Jan

PM sent.

Free to a good home (only p&p from the Netherlands): converted wheelsets for a Dapol terrier. Original wheels turned down and association rims fitted. Wheels run true and quartering is fine. Jan

Trespa is a Dutch brand of HPL panels (high pressure laminate). This seems to be a leading UK brand: https://www.elspanels.co.uk It must be widely used in the UK too, here in the Netherlands it seems as if everything that people don’t want to paint is clad in Trespa (HPL of course…) panels: dormers, roof gutters, boards around the flat roof of house extensions etc. Jan

5 thou is approx 0,13mm

Richard, I think @Yorkshire Square didn't suggest changing the track radius but shifting the whole track circle towards the front of the layout like this: Jan

I had the same problem for a very long time but I recently noticed a notch in the shoe of the jigsaw. If you follow the line with this notch and don't look at the saw blade it is much easier to cut 'straight'. Not really straight but much better than I ever managed before. Grabbed this image from iFixit: Jan

Klaus, Did you think about glueing 2mmSA tophat bearings in the original bearings? I did this with a Farish van and it works fine. IIRC I used some plasticard shims to get the axles to fit corectly. No idea what axle length you would need with the Minitrix coach but you can simply try it without glue first of course. Jan

That is not the case; you forget that the other wheel of the wheelset is on the track so nothing will happen on normal turnouts. It might go wrong on symmetric three way turnouts or crossings (double slip) though. Jan

I see two things you could change: 1) Maybe replace the two turnouts that give access to the yard with a double slip, it would give a bit of extra space. 2) you can change the backdrop to a more elliptical form. Tighter curves on the sides and nearly straight in the center. This would expose the turnout on the left near the end of the sidings but I don't think that will be a problem. Edit: I see another thing that could be changed. Why not start the complicated trackwork on the right of the station closer to the platforms? It would ease out the sharp curve in the outer loop. Jan

You are right Chris, I should have said fixed chassis with six or more wheels. Anything with four wheels will give problems. I haven't done the math for the Peco points but I wouldn't be surprised if the results indicate that it will go wrong. Flangeway is 1.2mm IIRC. Maybe the finetrax will be better. Jan

I had a similar discussion on the n gauge forum a few years ago where I stated exactly the same as Bob and Chris. However it appeared that a forum member had a 14xx 0-4-2 loco with Association chassis and wheels running on Peco track. After discussing this my conclusion was that a loco with fixed axles (no bogies or pony trucks) can run on n gauge track if the btb is adjusted. The fixed chassis will prevent the wheel to drop into the cfossing V gap. If you really want to try why not buy some 2mm SA wheels and brass strip and build a simple chassis. Straight brass sides, 3mm bolt with several nuts as spacers (it will be ajustable) and 1.5m axle holes. Push it along the pointwork and you can try to make it work by adjusting the btb (this can also be calculated quite easily though). Some plastic tube can be used as muff, no problem if the wheels are not firmly fixed. Another option is to buy spare wheelsets from Dapol or Graham Farish and build your chassis to n gauge standards. Edit: Testing can be done much easier/cheaper: buy wagon wheels, 6mm square section Evergreen strip and drill three axle holes. Jan

If I look at photo's it seems to me that the bonnet is wider than the wheels: https://railphotoprints.uk/p307899532/h7561F942#h7561f942 Maybe the top of the flanges of your 7mm wheels could run inside the bonnet/footplate? Jan

I had similar problems with my easitrac point blades that were caused by remains of the inside of the chair on the slide chairs that I had not cut away properly. You could try to clean up the top of the slide chairs under the stock rails Jan

A bit later than promised but I had to do a little research about the availability of epoxy adhesive in the UK. It makes building stong wooden structures so much easier. Learnt it from my brother who has restored wooden sailing yachts and ks now building a wooden canoe. The epoxy glue I use is a glue paste which I can buy locally: https://www.polyservice.nl/epoxy/413-3005-poly-pox-700-lijmpasta.html#/99474-maat-300_gr I found a similar product in the UK but you have to add filler (407, included in the kit) to make a paste: https://wessexresins.co.uk/west-system/resins-and-hardeners/101-mini-pack/ The rest was easy: I built a baseboard and made the sides. I used small screws to attach the sides to the baseboard, these are now used to fix the box to the baseboard. It now looked like this: I took off the sides and coated the outside of the baseboard with packaging tape, the epoxy will not bond to plastic. I also put a plastic bag underneath to protect the workbench. Then I put te rear wall back in place and glued the sides to the rear wall. I used painters tape to hold the joints together until the epoxy had set. After this I simply glued on additional pieces until the box was ready. If there are any gaps these are filled by the epoxy glue. When the box was ready I filed and sanded it smooth and painted it. Jan

Chris, I’ll post some info about the ‘box’ I made this weekend. Had to do some research if the materials I used are available in the UK. Jan

Only 3 posts? I'm not able to visit so please share as much as you want to! Any pics of the DJLC layouts?

Jayk, How will it be held in the chassis, I see no pivot point or something else to attach it? Jan