Anglian Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 (edited) I'm sure many forum members are aware of the development work that has been done to bring this finescale N gauge track to market, I've not seen samples but from the images I have seen it looks a quantum leap ahead of any existing N gauge track system. The range uses Code 40 rail. Point kits are not yet available but will be soon. A website has been set-up by the company and the plain track can now be ordered on line. http://www.britishfinescale.com/ Edited December 17, 2012 by Anglian 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted December 17, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 17, 2012 An interesting project. Just as a note however most of the buttons on the website do not work for me. (Using Safari 6.02 and Mac OS 10.8.2) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglian Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Kris I have the same issue but I think it's because the site hasn't been completed yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 17, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 17, 2012 Looks like most of the website is still under construction. No turnouts yet but the plain track would look good in sidings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orinoco Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 It would be nice to have an idea of what stock will run on it. I suspect some wheel flanges might be too deep. Mind you, at only £4 for a metre of track it might be worth a try anyway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Higgs Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 (edited) It would be nice to have an idea of what stock will run on it. I suspect some wheel flanges might be too deep. Mind you, at only £4 for a metre of track it might be worth a try anyway. I would give it a try. I have had a piece of the 2mm finescale equivalent track on my bench for a couple of years and I happily use it to test N Gauge models as well. Only a very small number of them foul the chairs with their flanges. Some of the very old Grafar do, but they look rudiculous on the track anyway. If it's rolling stock, you can also buy some of the newer Farish wheels to do a swap. Chris Edited December 18, 2012 by Chris Higgs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike Posted December 18, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 18, 2012 It would be nice to have an idea of what stock will run on it. I suspect some wheel flanges might be too deep. Mind you, at only £4 for a metre of track it might be worth a try anyway. Finetrax is basically a 9mm version of Easitrac (2mm FS) and there should be no problems with flanges on anything relatively new (ie last 10 years+). It is only really crude old wheels that will have problems. Cheers, Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 The big advantage over Easitrac looks like being the points (once the kits are completed). Wayne is looking to incorporate components like ready-made frogs which should make construction a lot easier. I don't think I can file rails into Vs accurately enough to make points otherwise. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahame Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 The big advantage over Easitrac looks like being the points (once the kits are completed). Wayne is looking to incorporate components like ready-made frogs which should make construction a lot easier. I don't think I can file rails into Vs accurately enough to make points otherwise. Oddly enough forming the vees with Easitrac is one of the easier bits of their point construction; there is a jig for filing and soldering and they can be made to N 9mm gauge. The real tricky bit is the tie bar operating mechanism - I'm keen to see how the new kits tackle that. I did suggest at the begining of the development of this track that point construction needs to be kept simple with, amongst other suggestions, at least * pre-formed vee crossing * pre tapered blades * simple and reliable operating system But I'm impressed with the development of this track so far (although TBH Easitrac is acceptable for plain N gauge track and is already available in wood and concrete sleepers) and am looking forward to the points. G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Higgs Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 The big advantage over Easitrac looks like being the points (once the kits are completed). Wayne is looking to incorporate components like ready-made frogs which should make construction a lot easier. I don't think I can file rails into Vs accurately enough to make points otherwise. Filing the Vs really isn't that difficult, even without the jigs Grahame mentions. The rail is so small in section it hardly takes any time. What I do find tedious and a bit tricky is filing the point blades to a nice fine taper. I'll be interested to see if how that is tackled. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglian Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 For me this system is a god send. Whilst I like the look of 2mm finescale I know it's beyond my ability to build or convert steam outline models and yet current N gauge track is just too crude for me. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
definate maybe Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Looks good but I wouldnt be confident about building my own points yet. What issues would there be combining this tracking with Peco points? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 I am not sure how easy it would be to combine them. The track is code 40 I think. People have successfully joined Easitrac to Peco points so I imagine it should be possible. I imagine you would need to pack the FiNetrax to bring it up to the same height at the peco points but it should be OK 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglian Posted December 20, 2012 Author Share Posted December 20, 2012 (edited) The rail is Code 40 and the sleepers are far less deep than Peco so you would need to pack the fiNetrax or drop the Peco if for example, you were using the latter in a fiddle yard. The points have been designed to be easy to make and they don't look too daunting from what I've seen. I think they will be around £12 a kit. Edited December 20, 2012 by Anglian 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
definate maybe Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Thanks for the replies Anglian and Karhedron. Gives me even more food for thought! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted December 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 24, 2012 Go away for just a few days and miss out on a really important bit of news! I need to sit down and work out how many metres of track I need for Tamworth LL. Track for HL can be a (much) later order. Really looking forward to seeing what Wayne has in store for us by way of pointwork. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orinoco Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 The rail is Code 40 and the sleepers are far less deep than Peco so you would need to pack the fiNetrax or drop the Peco if for example, you were using the latter in a fiddle yard. The points have been designed to be easy to make and they don't look too daunting from what I've seen. I think they will be around £12 a kit. £12 a kit sounds very reasonable. Will there be just one type, or several of different lengths? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglian Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 I suspect the initial launch will be one type but then very rapidly followed by others. Wayne has mentioned that he intends the range to be fully comprehensive in time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Wayne is currently working on a way of making frogs for the kits that he is satisfied with. The kits will involve cutting the rails to length. I imagine once he has a working solution it will be fairly straight forward to design bases for different geometries of pointwork. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
millerhillboy Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) This has just came at the right time for me as I'd been toying with the idea of easitrac with 9mm points for a small shed layout that I'd built a board for some time ago. I could never quite get moving on the track side as the track quality just wasn't suiting my eye at all, but I did not relish a switch to 2mm. I even tried improving the look of peco pointwork but never quite was satisfied. Reading TomE's blog on here with the superb trackwork that he has achieved just made it obvious how much better good track looks, his track just looks superb to my eye. So I for one will be dabbling with finetrax for sure when the pointwork starts rolling out. Price is super good as well, dare I say even cheap for what you get. Edited December 30, 2012 by millerhillboy 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Martin Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 I could easily see myself using this if it was available in flat-bottom rail and concrete sleepers. I really don't like Peco's code 55 track and an alternative that combined the looks of Easitrac with readily-available pointwork (and no issues about transitioning from one spec to another at points) would be a definite goer for me. Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted January 24, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 24, 2013 Received delivery of 30m of fiNetrax from Wayne yesterday. Very well packaged for the post. Had a bit of a play this morning. Rail threads well into the chairs which seem amazingly robust for their tiny size. I can't say that I found it easy though. After a lifetime of 4mm/3.5mm, code 40 BH rail is seriously small! I think that I will have to make up a jig to hold lengths of sleepering (up to 500mm length) in place while I thread the rail through, holding it with some sort of tweezers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas G Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 I would be very interested to see photographs of some of this track connected to a Peco Code 55 Finescale point. Does the code 40 vs (apparent) code 55 rail height look OK and do the size and spacing of the sleepers match acceptably? Douglas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 People have managed to connect "Easitrac" (which also uses code 40 rails) to Peco points with a bit of filing and fettling. I would imagine FiNetrax would be easier as the gauge is already the same. Sleeper spacing will be different of course as Peco is wrong for UK outline track anyway. My hunch is that once ballasted and weathered, the points will not stand out too much. However Wayne is planning on making matching point kits. These will be easier to build than Easitrac points as they will include pre-cast brass frogs. He is currently assessing feedback on whether it would be viable to include pre-made switch rails too. If he is able to make points kits that can be built without have to file the parts then I think that would be anough to persuade me to abandon Peco entirely. Currently I am not quite sure. I like the look of fiNetrax but I am not confident of my ability to get reliably working points if I have the file bits to shape myself. My skills are more on the cosmetic side, my attempts to make mechanisms that work reliably seems to be where I fall down. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted January 24, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 24, 2013 I'm with you there. 40 years ago, when my hand-eye co-ordination was rather better than it is now, I struggled to get SMP points to work properly. This is going to be much harder with components that have only 1/8th of the volume. Any soldering will have to be done in advance, well away from the very fine plastic sleppering and chairs. So in designing my jig for threading rail, I need to allow for having already soldered wire droppers from the rail (would p/b strip be a better option?) before attaching to the sleeperbase. And I think that the switches (blades) will probably need to be put in (with tiebar) before the stockrails - which is not the way that it is usually done. But I will probably just cop out and pay someone to do these for me. I do think it will be worth it for the massively improved appearance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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