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Kylestrome – 2mm scale 2FS


Kylestrome
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I started this layout in 2008 and it was the subject of a blog for a time. After a while I got more involved with my 4mm modelling and gave up the blog. Now that I am regaining my interest in 2mm modelling I have decided to resume work on Kylestrome and show progress on this thread. The first few posts will contain some of the (edited) blog entries, by way of introduction, and then it will continue with recent work.

 

My only finished 2FS layout to date is called 'Chapel Wharf' and was built small enough to be carried in a small suitcase. The suitcase layout idea came about because I don't drive a car and so I rely on public transport to get me, and sometimes my layout, to my destination. Being within the size limits for airline hand baggage Chapel Wharf has been flown to exhibitions on three occasions now.

 

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I started thinking about making another minimum space layout that would be easy to store and came up with the cardboard mockup you seen in the pictures. Kylestrome is basically the layout that I have been attempting to build for the last 24 years, and is my attempt to capture some of the atmosphere of Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast of Scotland. I have built two versions of it already, both of which were scrapped before they reached the scenery stage, and I have designed countless variants of it on paper, all much larger than the current plan. This time I have ‘down-sized’ it a little in the hope of actually finishing it!

 

David

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Because the intention is to be able to carry the entire layout and lighting unit in the hand, I have used the lightest grade of plywood available and in the thinnest sections that I can get away with. This will probably need some crossbracing, to stiffen the baseboards, which won't be a problem as long as I can position them well away from any turnout operating mechanisms. Most of these pieces have been cut out using a Stanley knife (box cutter) for the long cuts, and a mitre-saw for the short cuts. Where possible I have retained the machine cut outer edges for critical joints, where everything must remain truly square. I have also turned some baseboard location dowels on the lathe. I've made some extra ones, as well as some extra baseboard end pieces, in case I decide at some future date to insert another baseboard, between the station board and fiddle yard, to extend the layout. The baseboard end pieces were all firmly taped together and drilled, for the dowels and fixing bolts, on my drilling machine. This ensures that they will all later match up accurately in any combination.

 

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The fiddle yard traverser uses a pair of high quality drawer runners which run on self-contained ball bearings. The runners were cut down to the right length and then the ends had to be bent over slightly to prevent the balls from falling out at the extremes of travel. Guess how I found out it was necessary to do that ...

 

David

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Nice to see this again.  Kylestrome by "Kylestrome".  So good, they named it twice...

 

It's interesting (and somewhat frustrating) to note that the quality of plywood available from German DIY stores is streets ahead of what we get in the UK.

 

Please don't scrap this one David or we might have to form the Kylestrome Preservation Society.

 

Mark

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Having made a start on the main board, I had just begun sticking down the Templot printout, with double-sided carpet tape, when I realised I should have cut out the holes for the point operating units first! Because the plywood I have used is so soft I was able to stab these through with a sharp knife. The pins for moving the point blades will require two very small slots cut in the paper which will be almost invisible.

 

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I hate square corners in backscenes so those right-angled bits at the back of my new baseboard had to go! Fortunately I had a solution to hand and it originated, very appropriately, in Scotland.

 

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As you can see from the photos, the corners are now nicely rounded courtesy of a certain well known and highly recommended distillery. Five pieces of cardboard tube, laminated together with PVA glue, proved to be strong enough to match the rest of the plywood construction.

 

David

 

 

 

 

Edited by Kylestrome
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will this be a DJLC entry ?

 

Hi Nick. It was originally my intention to finish the layout for the Golden Jubilee Challenge but I obviously missed the deadline!  :)  The scenic section is 730mm x 300mm so it's too big for Diamond Jubilee competition, although I would have no objection to exhibiting it, if I finished it in time and someone expressed an interest in having it there.

 

David

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Here's a quick description of my way of using the Easitrac bits from the 2mm Scale Association. I stress that this is the way I have decided to use them and not the way it says in the instructions. That would be too easy!

 

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Easitrac components: left, cast brass sleepers, top, separate chairs for point building (2x slide, 8x normal and 1x check rail), bottom and right, plain track sleeper units (used as designed, these allow the track to be curved like proprietary flextrack).

 

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Here I'm gluing down separate sleepers (six at a time) because the spacing of the sleeper units did not match my Templot track plan. I'm using the the Easitrac glue (available from the 2mm Scale Association) which is a form of PVA and is ideally suited to sticking the ABS sleepers. It sets quickly too.

 

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Sliding in the code 40 bullhead rail to align the sleepers. Curved rails are curved before doing this.

 

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At the baseboard edge I've used PCB sleepers and Bob Jones etched chairs for a little more strength. The electrical connections, using 10 amp fuse wire, can also be seen.

 

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Here is a brass sleeper being used for an electrical feed. It has been cut in half with a piercing saw and glued down using cyano. The gap is filled with paper and cyno glue. I've left the little tags on for the fuse wire electrical feeds. The rail will also be soldered to the chairs.

 

David

Edited by Kylestrome
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Nice to see this again.  Kylestrome by "Kylestrome".  So good, they named it twice...

 

It's interesting (and somewhat frustrating) to note that the quality of plywood available from German DIY stores is streets ahead of what we get in the UK.

 

 

agreed, nice to see the layout re-emerging.   

 

Plywood,  try either suppliers to laser cutting outfits, or (no idea of the price) James Latham's have proper ply with branches in Fareham and Thurrock, plus a posh showroom in Islington. 

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Here is a brass sleeper being used for an electrical feed. It has been cut in half with a piercing saw and glued down using cyano. The gap is filled with paper and cyno glue. I've left the little tags on for the fuse wire electrical feeds. The rail will also be soldered to the chairs.

 

 

 

I like the tip about keeping the tags for electrical feeds.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

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On with the ‘black art’ of point building using some of the tricks learnt from building P4 track.

 

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Home-made 1 in 6 filing jig (steel) for making crossing vees.

 

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Home-made crossing-vee assembly jig made of paxolin sheet.

 

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This is the Association 1 in 6 crossing assembly jig (what you can see of it). I have printing out a small, mirrored section of my Templot plan (in other words, the view from underneath) so that I can see exactly where the sleepers will be.

 

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Small pieces of chair plate strip (10 thou thick) being soldered to what will be the underside of the unit.

 

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The finished crossing assembly.

 

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The crossing from above. It still needs the bends in the wing rails.

 

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The crossing being glued in place with cyano. Here you can also see the point sleepers cut from plain ABS point sleeper strip. Note that the check rail (almost ready to be fitted) has been slotted into the wrong side of the chairs. 

 

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Here we see the operating wires soldered to the points. A very small notch is filed in the bottom flange to accommodate the vertical leg.

 

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This is a switch blade for an A6 turnout, ready for fitting to the layout. The chairs are all plain and have to be fitted before the electrical feed wires are soldered on, under the rails.

 

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Here the electrical feed wires are being lowered into pre-drilled holes. Slots have also been cut in the paper track plan for the point operating wires. These will be almost invisible when everything is painted. The bits in the background are a couple of Association roller gauges and a couple of home-made 'button' gauges, which are very useful for setting the gauge around the points (ends of the switch blades).

 

David

Edited by Kylestrome
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Great to see this reappear David.

 

As you know, this layout and Anthony Yeates’s Invernuik were the main inspiration for my Kyle efforts.

 

Kyle of Lochalsh seems to be en vogue at present ;)

 

https://www.facebook.com/chrisnevard/posts/1806993219351422

 

Everywhere else is Palin into insignificance.

 

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Here are the models that I have already finished, or at least started, for previous versions of Kylestrome. I’d rather not think about how old some of these are, but at least they give me a good start on the layout. 

 

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Highland Railway platelayers hut

 

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Half-relief copies of some Kyle sheds

 

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An almost completed crofters cottage

 

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A fishing boat that will come in handy for the quayside. This is a dutch kit from Artitec which I have 'anglicised'

 

David

Lovely layout David. Your little croft house just reminded me I produced a 2mm Plastikard Model of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club bothy, Milehouse near Kincraig, about 20 years ago. I originally planned it as a mockup for a souvenir model, but realised half way through that the detail would need to be much coarser for this purpose.

 

Marlyn

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Here we see the completed trackwork. The 2mm Scale Association 'Easitrac' was a joy to work with. I'm amazed at how robust it is, considering how minute the chairs are, and people had been saying for years that it couldn't be done!

 

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Due to slight hiccup in the planning department, it appears that someone forgot to drill holes for the uncoupling magnets. It looked like I'd have to botch a solution. I had no choice but to remove the middle section of a sleeper before drilling a 5mm hole for the magnet extension. The gap will be filled in later.

 

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The uncoupling magnets are cut from small 12 volt relays to which a short piece of 5mm steel rod is glued.

 

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These magnets don't take up much space so it is possible to cram a lot in a small area. They each have a card spacer to adjust the steel extension exactly to baseboard level. Note also the scraps of 00 PCB sleepers, glued to the baseboard to act as solder pads for the wiring. On the right hand side, some electrical feed droppers from the track can be seen. 

 

David

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I too, shall follow this thread with interest since I used to go to school through Kyle.

You've a model of the station building in one picture, have you built it from Photos? or have you managed to get plans?. I'm hopeing to put a model of Kyle station on my Tiree layout.

Nice to see you making the mistakes with the electromagnets :jester:  , hopefully it will remind me not to make the same mistakes, as there is a stack of relays waiting conversion...

 

I suspect your modelling is going to be much better than mine...

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You've a model of the station building in one picture, have you built it from Photos? or have you managed to get plans?

 

The building in the first picture was only a card mock-up. As it happens, I am working on the actual model at the moment and I will show an update soon.

 

As for plans, I have drawn my own based my photos and a few basic measurements. In reality, it is an amazingly long, narrow building and I reckon that my semi-freelance version is less than half as long. If you want to see a plan of the prototype, there is one in the Peter Tatlow book "The Dingwall & Skye Railway". This book is excellent and definitely worth getting if you're interested in the Kyle line.

 

David

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The next task to be completed was the making of point operating units.

 

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First I made the tie bars, which consist of two pieces of 1.5mm Paxolin (SRBP) sheet, screwed together with 12BA screws and nuts. A short length of thin brass tube is forced into a tight hole to accept the operating pin. The two small holes are for the wires coming down from the point blades. The top face of the tie bar is polished to reduce friction when in use.

 

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Strong nerves come into play when using the last remaining unbroken 0.35mm drill. After a bit of experimentation I decided to drill the two holes a shade over 8mm apart.

 

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10amp fuse wire is wound around a scrap of the 0,3mm wire used for the point wires.

 

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The resulting coils are very small!

 

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When the tie bar is in place, with the point operating wires poking through, the coils are slipped over them and soldered in place. This keeps everything nicely aligned and prevents the blades from lifting. The point operating wires are free to swivel which is necessary to prevent twisting of the blades and stress on the solder joints.

 

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Over the years I've collected a good stock of these things. They are small 12 volt relays with the distinction of having a small fixing screw which can be used to attach them to a bracket. On one side there is a piece of piano wire soldered to the clapper. When the relay is energised the wire moves with enough force to move the points and the springiness in the wire holds them firmly in place. The contacts form an SPDT switch and will later be wired to switch the polarity of the crossing vee.

 

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From another angle, one can see that the bracket is fixed to a plate, which is screwed to the baseboard. the two screws that hold the bracket are in oversize holes, which allow a certain amount of adjustment. Note the slots cut into the screws to help with tightening the nuts. To the right is a new relay before being 'got at'.

 

David

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