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2mm Modern image layouts


Earl Bathurst
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After attending RailEx on Sunday it was nice to see so many 2mm layouts in one place, but out of curiosity are there many British Modern image era layouts about, i.e. BR blue to present day. My preference is sectorisation but searches produce very limited results.

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Earl Bathurst said:

After attending RailEx on Sunday it was nice to see so many 2mm layouts in one place, but out of curiosity are there many British Modern image era layouts about, i.e. BR blue to present day. My preference is sectorisation but searches produce very limited results.

 

 

 

I can think of a few - Swinton by Andrew Gibson, and Ketton Cement by Martin Stewart (although I think the latter has, or is about to be, retired from the exhibition circuit). Nigel Ashton's Llangerisech (which was at Railex) can also be run in three different time periods; 1930s, 1970s and mid-2000s, and of course there is Mick Simpson's 'Cameo Callaton' layout (BR blue diesels) which was also at Railex.

 

Andy

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Interesting question! 

 

The only sectorisation 2mmFS layout that I can think of is Jim Allwood's  Welton Down http://www.2mm.org.uk/layouts/weltondown/index.html

 

There are obviously a lot more BR Blue era layouts, including Mick Simpson's Callaton and bcnPete's Kyle in a Boxfile etc. 

 

Personally, I'm also a fan of the sectorisation era (for me this is the cliché of period you first remember from seeing railways as a kid). I've been collecting Farish and Dapol models of sector era stock as and when they're released, but I have no intention of converting them to 2mmFS. I intend to build the eventual layout of that era using Finetrax, or at least hand laid N gauge track to a finer standard than PECO. 

 

Burton on Trent in "N2" is a great example of a sectorisation era layout using this approach. 

 

For me, personally, the advantages of 2mm are more apparent the more daylight around the wheels of locos and rolling stock. I'd say that for me, and I suspect others, modern diesel and electric stock, and modern airbraked rolling stock, hides the wheels quite well. Whereas pre-grouping stock with one side only brakes and the like really make the wheels visible.

 

I suspect that's why you tend to see a disproportionately large amount of pre-grouping and grouping era layouts in 2mmFS, and disproportionately few "modern" modern image layouts.

 

Even a 70s or early 80s era layout in BR blue is likely to have a large population of "traditional" wagons where the spindly underframes and short wheelbases show off the advantages of 2mm quite a lot. A train of BR 16t minerals, or 21t hoppers seem to repay the effort of 2mm quite a lot more visibly than a late 80s train of MGR hoppers, or especially more than more recent bogie hoppers, I think!

 

Likewise, even an Mk1 coach draws a lot more attention to it's relatively open underframe and bogies, and therefore also to the track, than a Mk3 with its boxed in underframe does.

 

Justin

 

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Yep, my next layout will be Easitrac with n gauge handbuilt points. Re-wheeling everything is such such a ballache, particularly in N gauge where you can have a lot of stock in a modest space. It's not so bad for a P4 depot where you have a handful of locos.

 

Cornish Trains Jez's Euston springs to mind too, although I know that's on a bit of an extended hiatus at the moment. Great project though.

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Thanks for the name check Justin!

 

I can add the following terrific BR Blue layouts:

 

Andy’s Blueball Summit layout which is Late 70’s/ early 80’s BR Blue and is built with Easitrac and 2mm hand built turnouts widened to accept N gauge rolling stock.

 

Bryn’s Colywn Bay Goods which he is working on for Tutbury 

 

Steve’s (Pixie) superb Parkend (also at Tutbury)

 

All of these feature in Blog/layout entries on here.

 

One thing I was pondering the other day is I don’t recall seeing a layout built with FiNetrax yet...although there must be some as it has been out quite some time...

 

Pete

 

 

 

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