Lisa

Yes quite so. The larger of the two radius is 190mm and the smaller is 130mm.

Hi All Today I have been building the new cassette location and electrical connection for the train cassettes on Chagford. Despite the new electrical system being much more straight forward, on the first attempt I got the wiring cassette wiring reversed and found a complete short when I tested it. This done I next wired up the section of track to the left of the cassette which had previously been unconnected. Then did some rectification to the point wiring and added the point tie bar. Then I ran the first train around the whole oval including over the cassette. 2nd_Train.mov Building points that are not built in a 2mm Association jig is an artform. I am learning fast and hopefully my next point will be easier to build and have the need for less rectification before a train will run over it without derailing. Lisa

Hi All Last night I completed building my own workbench, up to now I've been working on the kitchen table. Currently I get the power supply from a extension lead on the top of the bench, hopefully I will soon have the 4 way attached to the side of the bench instead. I also need to fit a side and back to the bench to prevent items and tools from falling off, and getting lost. Lisa

Hi all The construction method for the Chagford baseboard is very simple. The top is made from 8mm MDF sheet. A circle was drawn using a ruler type compass. The circle was then cutout using a jigsaw. Once the basic shape had been cut out, the edge was smoothed using a surform and the attachment blocks were located as shown below. The blocks then had a curved edge made using the surform too. The edging strip is 4mm MDF cut into a strip and then placed in the bath to soften it, for about 20 minutes. So that it could be bent into the required radius. This was held in place whilst the MDF dried using 10mm chipboard screws. At this point the screws were removed and PVA glue placed on the attachment blocks and the screws replaced. This is possible because once dried the MDF holds it curved shape. Lisa

Hi All Once the final layout size was determined, I then started to design the track layout. At the initial stages I had decided the the main line curve would be 190mm radius. An arc of this radius was drawn on the front of the baseboard, using a ruler type compass. Templates for the various points were produced, complete with sleeper centrelines, using templot. The point templates were laid out as shown in the photograph above. This allowed the lengths of the loop and sidings could be checked using actual wagons. I knew that my length of my trains would have to be shorter than on the prototype but I feel that a train of 4 wagons and a brake, in BR days and 5 wagons in independent days would capture the correct feel. The tramway company did not believe in using brake vans, and because it was a tramway the Board of Trade could not force their use! I had decided early on that I would decrease the distance between parallel lines from the generally accepted 12.5mm between the centrelines. This has the effect in making the layout appear larger than it is to the viewer. Sidings on the model will have well very severe curves, but the only restriction on the radius of curves was would the wagons go round them without coming off. The station is a terminus, despite the layout being an oval, the line after the loop and the platform becomes a private siding for the Dairy, and on the prototype there was a baulk bridge over a stream just beyond a white gate. My intention is to include the bridge, but to leave this until I have laid out the loop and sidings. At this stage the layout was checked to see if the proposed operation sequence would work. Initially I had intended not to have a carriage siding, but the early part of the sequence would have required excessive shunting if the carriages were left in the platform overnight. It is much easier to check the sequence using real rolling stock rather than using paper based methods. The track in the area where the bridge will be installed is not glued down, but is held in position with screws for ease of removal. Once the track has been removed the baseboard will be able to be cut and carved to represent the stream channel and a link piece will be screwed and glued beneath to maintain baseboard integrity. Lisa

Hi All I started to build Chagford before I stared blogging. So in this entry I will attempt to start to fill in the missing story. Initially the layout was conceived as a circular layout rather in the style of Mark Fielder's Pizza and the baseboard was built as a circular board. But it soon became obvious that most containers are rectangular, and not having a car and using public transport, the baseboard was trimmed to make it fit. The size of the layout is increase by using the device of the hinged cassette fiddleyard. The position of the backscene has to be positioned so that the fiddleyard can be accommodated when packed for transport. The backscene height is fixed by the box at 85mm. The blocks are the central fixings for the backscene, and the are composed of two pieced because my carpentry skills are not up to cutting a piece of wood at 90° in two planes. The first piece is fixed to the baseboard top, the second is fixed to the first by a screw in one vertical face. The angle of the back face of the second block was then adjusted using a engineers square to the correct angle and the the screw is tightened. The space between the backscene and the cassette location can be used to store other cassettes during operating sessions, but since the layout sits on a table storage space is not limited. The one advantage of a circular baseboard is that the frontage for a given area is larger than for a conventional rectangular design. The hinges are placed on blocks to lift the cassette fiddleyard up to make sure that the tracks do not get damaged when the layout is in transit. The two pieces are held together using over centre catches, these have had to be slightly modified to allow the layout to sit flat in the transport box. This increase the height of the backscene and thus the scenery by 12mm and also reduces the possible damage too. Photograph below shows layout seating after modification, which consisted of cutting 5mm from the catch lever. To be continued …......... Lisa

My first priority is to replace the cassette system with one that works and then I can use the circuit as a test track. I will then do the necessary rectification works on the point. The wagon goes through the crossing on the main OK, but there is currently a problem on the branch. Lisa

Yes it is 130mm radius, but you have to remember this is a model mineral tramway! Lisa

Hi All I use lead free solder, unlike most modellers who I know who bought several rolls of lead solder when lead free was introduced. This requires a higher temperature of 370° and since the pcb sleeper supplied by the 2mm Association are designed it requires very careful soldering, if you are not going to have the copper coming away from the base material. I use 9% Phosphoric Acid flux to ensure the sleeper is very clean and therefor I get a good quality solder joint. I hold the sleepers in position on the paper template with double sided tape, this allows their position to be adjusted before I push the sleeper had down. I then cut the rails to the required size, plus an extra 20mm, from the reel of rail. This extra length allows for the fact that you cannot bend the rail to a even curvature right to the end. I soldered the outer rail into position by eye making the inside edge line up with the line on the template. Once I was satisfied with the positioning of this I soldered the inner rail in position using the roller track gauge to ensure the correct track gauge. I then removed the masking tape fixing the template to the baseboard. The turning the template and track over and pressing the track against the baseboard I carefully removed the template from the track. The track section was then cut to length, allowing enough extra to enable the ends to be filled square. After several fittings the track section was the correct length. At this point I applied methylated spirit, using a wipe, as a stopping agent. This works by neutralising the acid. Next the rail position was marked three sleepers from each end of the outer rail. Lille Pins were then inserted into 0.5mm holes, these pins will proved both fixings and power connection points. This section of track is a temporary section until the replacement point has been made. This will allow test running for the testing of chipped locos and rolling stock with DG couplings fitted. A single Lille Pin was then inserted and soldered to the underside of the inner rail, once the rail was soldered to the outer ones. Finally I Cleaned up the rail surface and checked the alignment using a wagon carefully pushed along. Lisa

Hi All When making sharp curves, i.e. sub 800mm radius I have found that the standard way of producing 2mm track by using the track jig to produce a herring bone does not work. I output the template from the track design package without the sleepers showing. This is because the package does not work correctly when the radius of the curve is sub 400mm radius. The template was cut out and fixed to the baseboard using masking tape. I marked the mid point between the rails at each end and then with a compass set to the radius of 190mm I then fund the centre of the circle, using simple school girl geometry. Then I drew in the arc, the centreline of the track. Standard sleeper spacing is is 30†which scales to 5mm. Using dividers I divided up the track centreline. Then it simply a case of drilling a 1mm hole at the centre of the centreline arc, placing a pencil in the hole and then placing a straight edge against it and positioning the other end on one of the divisions on the track centreline and drawing the sleeper centreline. Construction can now commence! Lisa

HI All The cassette design I have been using has proven to be a dead end design, but hay I had an idea but it did not work out in practice. Half the fun for me of working in 2mm is the problem solving aspect! Part of the reason for the problems was one of the connectors / locators was 0.2mm too near to the right hand end of the cassette. This despite careful measurement and allowing for adjustment after assembly. The cassette worked one way around, but it didn't work when turned round. I will now be using a more conventional design approach, using stationary clips both horizontally locate it and connect the power, this has the added advantages that it is cheaper to manufacture, the DCC power connections are automatically reversed when the cassette is turned around. Hindsight is the only thing guaranteed to be 100% correct. Lisa

Hi All I am trying to prove that it is possible to build a fully functioning exhibition layout within the micro layout format. Lisa

Hi All It's a simple as I have never got round to fitting them yet. For the cassettes I been considering a solution which involves a micro switch and a relay which could be powered via a rectifier bridge, from the DCC Bus. BUT I might abandon this method of cassette construction because of it's high cost! Yet to be decided, watch this space! Lisa

Hi all I have to have wider flangways than shown in the standards in the 2mm Handbook because of the sharp curves on my tram layout. This is a lesson I learn from examining and talking to the owner of 'The Broadway layout' Alan Lawrence. Lisa

Hi All Can anyone tell me why when three 2mm modelers meet, they have four preferred track building methods? I seems to be quite fashionable in 2mm circles to lay track, have a problem, rip it up and then relay it. Well now I’ve joined in with a 'Y' point that caused derailments. I have made some plain track to temporally replace it, so I can run trains! My re-inventing is in the design of my cassette fiddleyard. The mechanical alignment and electrical connections are achieved using two DC power connectors, see photograph below. The problem is that when I reverse the cassette I reverse the power connections and thus I get a short when I drive a DCC equipped loco onto the cassette! Otherwise the system works well. Why could I just use the standard system? Lisa

Hello All I have been wiring the track for DCC, this I though was a simple task, but when I checked my work with a multimeter the rails were shorted. After disconnecting various wire I discovered that one of the pre-cut sleepers was not cut properly. This corrected and the wires reconnected the short has been corrected. Three of the sections of track are held in position using two screws. This is to allow them to be removed to allow a cross over to be installed later. Next I ran a locomotive, which I recorder using my camera phone. 1st_Train.mov I could not get the locomotive to go round the 78mm radius curve, but this is caused because of a problem with the baseboard join, and the track currently has a hump in the track. Lisa

Hi All More details of the prototype The layout is a model of a mineral tramway, and not a railway. The difference is that a tramway can either go along it's own right of way, or along a public road, either in the road surface or on the verge. To build such a tramway the permission from the local highway authority to cross or go along public roads is all that is required, together with the purchase of any land required for depots and private rights sections. No acts of parliament are required. A maximum speed of 15 mph where the tramway is on the verge, 5 mph when crossing public roads and 25mph when on a private right of way are imposed by the Tramways Act. Lisa The only restriction on the radius of curves, is whether the locomotives and rolling stock can negotiate them, when a traversed at an appropriate speed laid down by either the highway authority or the tramway operator.

Hi More photographs will follow. This is the first time I have blogged and I am still learning.

Hi Yes the curves are very tight, 78mm radius to be exact, BUT the prototype only used very short wheelbase locomotives and 10' wagons and two home brew coaches for quarry workers on 12' wagon chassis. In fact the 78mm is larger than the most severe curve on the prototype scaled to 2mm scale! This radius scaled would be 54mm radius!

How do you include pictures within your blog post?

Hi All I have been working on layout today! I model in 2mm finescale. Today I have run my first train on the layout using the non DCC option on the controller, as of yet I don't have a decoder equipped loco yet. Lisa

Hi Preumably the sections of the layout can be stored on a shelf when not assembled into the complete layout?

Your rotary dryer looks like a pepper container, things are obviously hotting up!

I one of those people who has got off a Liskard to Looe train at Coombe Junction, just becase it is there! In the current timetable only two trains Monday to Saturday call at Coombe Junction and non on Sundays. The other trains stop just short of the platform, and the gaurd walks to the ground frame, unlocks the facing point lock, changes the point and then relocks the facing point lock and then returns to the train. The ground frame is unlocked using an annets key, which is attatched to the Liskard to Looe single line staff. The section from Liskard to Coombe Junction is operated in such a way as to allow a train to be locked into Moorshead yard, and the section from Coombe Junction is operated under One Engine in Steam, regulations.