2mm Modbury

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Just coming off my workbench is my first 2mm scale signal (actually it's my first completed signal in any scale!)

This one is the Down Home for my fictional Modbury layout. The post has been milled to a tapered profile from 3mm square brass bar, the arm, balance weight and ladder are MSE components. The lamp is my own turning fixed to a small piece of L section brass. The finial is an old (overscale) OO handrail knob with a piece of 0.5mm phosphor bronze wire pushed through, soldered and turned to a point in a mini drill. The base of the finial is a small scrap of 0.010" (or 0.008" - can't remember) nickel silver with a 0.5mm hole through it, soldered to the top of the post (with the finial) and then sanded back to be a little proud of the post on all sides.

The drive rod is 36SWG (0.076") phosphor bronze wire, threaded through the balance arm bent through 90 degrees and up through the rod guides (which are small pieces of 0.3mm ID tube soldered to the post oversize and filed back to a more acceptable representation of the rod guides), at the top another 90 degree bend allows the wire to pass through the arm. The ends of the drive wire snipped off and flattened to secure.

Below are some images of the completed signal.

DSCN1574.JPG DSCN1575.JPG DSCN1576.JPG DSCN1577.JPG DSCN1578.JPG DSCN1580.JPG

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Today I have been trying to progress my layout (Modbury) a little. To this end, I have been adding more transoms within the 4' - for those that are not aware I am modelling (or at least attempting to) Brunel's Baulk Road in 2mm.

Below are a few images of the progress so far on what I affectionately term "Board 3" :
Board 3 - Transoms 1.JPG
The extent of today's endeavours - Transoms on the Up Loop, Goods Loop to Back Siding Turnout and environs.

To give a bit of context, here are a couple of images of trains plonked on. The Up Goods waits in the loop as a down passenger drifts past the Down Home signal :
Board 3 - Trains 1.JPG
Board 3 - Trains 2.JPG
Down Passenger 1.JPG
Up Goods.JPG

Recently, I have also made a start on the point rodding at the up end, the first element of this is the FPL :
FPL 1.JPG
The lock bar is simply some 0.005" plasticard laid along the top of the baulk. I really feel that this had to be modelled in some form as during my period (c.1906) the GWR painted FPL's, point rodding etc in a red colour, so these elements will be quite a feature (I hope).

The other item I have been making in the last few days is a control panel. An image of this is shown below :
Control Panel 1.JPG
It is my eventual intention to provide a locking frame above the switches. I haven't decided yet whether to fit a proper lever frame (I'd like to but it may be a little expensive as having tried Jerry's on Tucking Mill I am quite taken with the S4 society one). Just in case I decide such extravagance is beyond my pocket and/or skills to assemble, I have taken the step of drilling a cross hole through each of the switches above so that I can fashion some drive rods to a locking frame that will live north of the switches and be covered by the signalling diagram.

Thank you for looking.

Ian
 

john lewsey

Western Thunderer
Hi Ian really nice it's amazing how much impact it has putting some stock on the scene makes
John
Just wondered if you had any more of those wagons left
 

queensquare

Western Thunderer
Fantastic stuff Ian. I would certainly go with the S4 lever frame, they are wonderfully tactile to use and greatly enhance the fun of operation. I can't comment on whether you can afford them but they are comfortably within your ability to make. They are not difficult although they do require a bit more heat than your average 2mm job!

Jerry
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Hi Ian really nice it's amazing how much impact it has putting some stock on the scene makes
John
Just wondered if you had any more of those wagons left
John,
Thank you. I do have a couple of wagons left although I'm not sure which ones or how many. I certainly want some of them for my own use, and would have liked another of my brake vans but I stupidly sold the last one some time ago. When I get a chance I'll look through what's there and let you know what if any are surplus to requirements. I did notice one of my W3 (small) cattle wagons on one of your recent posts, I look forward to seeing it finished :)

regards,

Ian
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Thanks for posting - the variation in contour levels looks great and is something that has has always attracted me to 2mmFS. Just out of interest what height have you got on the back scene. I'm just building the boards for a 2mmFS layout and I have got some flexible ply for the back scene. [acquired from John Holden of Liverpool Lime Street as it happens!] I'm trying to work out what sort of height they need to be. I'll just be using an overcast sky background as the viewing orientation for my layout is straight out to sea/estuary. So there are no hills or anything to clutter the back scene. Although there are plenty of trees which I reckon are about 6" to 8". I was thinking about 15" height on the back scene. So hence my query about your setup.
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Thanks for posting - the variation in contour levels looks great and is something that has has always attracted me to 2mmFS. Just out of interest what height have you got on the back scene. I'm just building the boards for a 2mmFS layout and I have got some flexible ply for the back scene. [acquired from John Holden of Liverpool Lime Street as it happens!] I'm trying to work out what sort of height they need to be. I'll just be using an overcast sky background as the viewing orientation for my layout is straight out to sea/estuary. So there are no hills or anything to clutter the back scene. Although there are plenty of trees which I reckon are about 6" to 8". I was thinking about 15" height on the back scene. So hence my query about your setup.

Adrian,
I'm a fan of quite high back scenes (the layout will be operated from the front as a result). I can't exactly remember the height of my back scene, but it must still be a good 15" above the track level (I actually dropped it by about 1.5" a few weeks ago - I had an idea that I would make the rear back scene removable (the ends are integral with the baseboard) so that I could take photos from the back if I ever wanted to (and it might make it easier to do the scenery if I can get at it from both sides), so now the rear screws onto the back of the baseboard rather than to blocks on top of it.
The slope towards the back of the baseboard will eventually be wooded - the road disappearing between trees. One of the things I was very keen to do was to have variation in contour levels - hence the embankment with a wooded hillside behind it. Similarly, the road isn't going to be level either, on the next board it will drop by a bit before rising again into the far corner - a T junction near the far corner will provide a lane into the scene to the station and onward over a bridge forming a scenic break. At least that's how it all looks in my imagination!!

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Not quite on my workbench (although the baseboard actually is!) but...

Over the last few weeks I have been pushing forward with "Modbury", the up and down loops on the other baseboard have been laid and the down end traverser has got track on it. The lighting unit and proscenium arch have also been completed. All of these achievements are to allow me to actually run something and to allow it to be seen next weekend when the layout has it's first outing to the 2mm Expo in Chelford.

Because the layout is very much a work in progress, I was keen to show a small section in a slightly more completed light so that my fellow 2mil'ers will be able to see what I'm aiming to achieve and provide a conversation piece. I have therefore put in the FPL, point rodding and a representation of the associated FPL detector on the embankment section (I've also installed the Down Home that started off this thread).Photo 22.JPG
The small slightly blurred red things on each side of the line just beyond the FPL are the signal pulleys that transfer the wires below the rails to the as yet non-existent Up Advanced Starter and Up Shunt Ahead signals - they were on the Association's point rodding cranks etch so I felt I might as well use them and put them in before they cart me off to the funny farm :)

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Yesterday was my embryonic layouts very first outing. The venue was the 2mm Association's 2015 Expo. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

For any (which is probably most) who are not aware, my model is a fictional "might have been" GWR branch line through station. In my imagination, the South Devon Railway built their line as they originally intended from Churston, crossing the Dart around the Dittisham area, and following the river's western bank to Dartmouth, then on to Slapton before turning westerly towards Kingsbridge before taking a more north-westerly route across the South Hams area of Devon providing stations at places like Aveton Gifford, Modbury and Yealmpton before finally getting to Plymouth. Once the South Devon was absorbed into the GWR, the latter company built the real Newton Abbot - Plymouth main line around the southern reaches of Dartmoor leaving my imaginary line as little more than a cross country branch.

The station I have selected to model on my imaginary line is Modbury, a passing place on what is otherwise a single track line. It is assumed that the line was originally built to Broad Gauge, and was "narrowed" along with the rest of the remaining Broad Gauge on that fateful weekend in May 1892. My layout is set c.1906 at a period when the baulk road track work would still be extant. Structures on the layout are or will be based on South Devon Railway ones, the Goods Shed from Moretonhampstead, Station Buildings from Bovey Tracey, road over bridge from Heathfield. The Signal Box will be a slightly more typical GWR example, from Bodmin (just because I have always liked that particular one!)

Below are a few photos of the layout at its first event :

Overall Shot.jpg

Goods Shed.JPG

Down Goods.JPG

Up Passenger.JPG

Thanks for looking,

Ian
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
That's just wonderful, the baulk road track in particular. I can't wait to see it more fully landscaped.

Adam
 

BCN-Pete

Western Thunderer
Fantastic - love the first shot Ian with the lighting and framed view all looking spot on.

Hope it went well yesterday at the expo - am hoping to get to one, some time. ;)
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
That's just wonderful, the baulk road track in particular. I can't wait to see it more fully landscaped.

Adam
Fantastic - love the first shot Ian with the lighting and framed view all looking spot on.

Hope it went well yesterday at the expo - am hoping to get to one, some time. ;)
I agree - it did look very good, the finish on the coaches was simply exquisite.

Thank you all for the positive comments! The lighting is simply provided by 3 Wickes under cupboard strip lights (real ones not those new fangled LED ones) 571mm long each.

Ian
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
For my next 2mm scale engine I had been considering an Armstrong Goods 0-6-0 tender engine (which I will also build) but in the end I've decided to begin work on a GWR "Buffalo" 1076 class. This engine is effectively a tank engine version of the Armstrong Goods, having the same wheelbase but slightly smaller wheels (and obviously no tender), and also has outside frames. For my chosen period (c.1906) nearly all of this class still had their saddle tanks (they were later rebuilt with pannier tanks).

Drawing on the experience of my first 2mm scale engine (my 1854 class saddle tank), I decided that this one will be fully scratch built (the predecessor being a "conversion" from a Farish 57xx - I say "conversion" because in reality there isn't a huge amount left of the Farish model!). One of the main things that bothers me about the previous model is that there is no rivet detail on the saddle tank where the plates of steel were joined together. It looks OK from normal viewing distances, but I know it's missing - I could add some using Archer's rivet transfers I suppose, but as I said in my RMweb blog when I was building the model there are other compromises so eventually I will probably give it a complete new body. That said, it did what I hoped it would do - to allow me to prove to myself that I could model in 2mm Finescale, and more importantly get a locomotive to work in the scale.

However, I've digressed. So on to the "Buffalo"...

As mentioned above, for this model I intend to put a representation of the rivets on both the saddle and the outside frames. To this end, the first thing I needed was a rivet press!! So, armed with various pieces of steel I made myself one!
saddle - 3.jpg
This has been made so that I can locate it in the lathe chuck, and use the cross slide and top slide (locked at 90 degrees to the cross slide) to allow evenly spaced rivets to be pressed into some sheet material.
saddle - 2.jpg

So today, I have done just that. A piece of 0.005" brass was cut roughly to size and mounted on the lathe and a good many rivets pressed in at a 0.020" separation. I'm not a rivet counter, and all I'm after really is some relief to an otherwise plain area of sheet metal. Once all of the rivets were pressed, the brass was finished to size and rolled to the profile of the saddle - I had previously fretted out a pair of formers of the correct profile for the front and rear of the saddle (one will actually be the smokebox front eventually) - and the whole lot soldered up. Below are a couple of photos complete with the requisite coin of the realm to illustrate the size.
saddle - 1.jpg

Saddle 2.JPG

Now I've managed to prove that my riveter works, and that I can form the saddle the next stage will be to begin work on the chassis. For this I will utilise the same method as I did for my Metro Tank, and will mill up a solid brass chassis albeit retaining the standard 2mm scale split axle methodology of construction.

Ian
 
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adrian

Flying Squad
This has been made so that I can locate it in the lathe chuck, and use the cross slide and top slide (locked at 90 degrees to the cross slide) to allow evenly spaced rivets to be pressed into some sheet material.
What a brilliant idea! Bleeding obvious now that you mention it - now kicking myself for not thinking of it myself. I'm now going to have a look at my rivet press and see if I can modify it for the same operations. Thanks for the idea.
Below are a couple of photos complete with the requisite coin of the realm to illustrate the size.
I hope I'm not the only one to have thought it but the riveting on your tank looks better than that on the coin!
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Recently I have begun work on the Signal Box for Modbury. This is based on the one preserved (or rather rebuilt) at Bodmin General in Cornwall. I have the old SLAG series of Model Railway Constructor articles on their construction of Bodmin which includes a 4mm drawing for the 'box, but my 'box is to be a mirror image with a full set of steps rather than the half set from platform level of the real thing.
Therefore, the first step was to produce a 2mm scale set of working drawings in CAD with a view to making a card mock up so that I could satisfy myself that it would be in proportion and look OK on the site I intended to place it on Modbury.
Mock Front.JPG
Mock Back.JPG

This mock up enabled me to prove that I was happy with the dimensions so work began in ernest on the plasticard model - plasticard being my preferred medium for building construction.
Firstly the 4 locking room walls were constructed from 0.040" sheet, planking detail being "scrawked" where appropriate for the locking room door and the window surround. Whilst still in the flat the window's sill was added from a piece of over-sized 0.015" then sanded back against a "stop" (after being filed flush on the inside). The sides and ends were then assembled - it should be pointed out here that the length and breadth of these walls was deliberately made undersize to accommodate the 0.020" embossed stone overlay that I was going to clad them with.
Base Front.JPG
Base Back.JPG

The next item was to build up the chimney and it's supporting ground floor wall. A solid core of laminated plastic sheet was made and shaped before being clad in embossed brick sheet, and finished with decorative courses of (I think) 0.010".
Chimney 1.JPG

This sub-structure can be seen temporarily placed against the locking room below :
Chimney 2.JPG

The walls of the upper storey were then constructed from 0.030" sheet, planking detail again skrawked before cutting out. The window reveals were removed by careful cutting and filing before more oversized sills of 0.015" were added.
Top Ends 1.JPG
Top Ends 2.JPG

Before fitting, the embryonic sills were again filed flush on the inside before again sanding down to a "stop" on the outside.

The photos below show the current state of play, the next stage is to add window / door frames and corner "posts" as slightly raised items from the planked sections.
Box Front.JPG
Box Rear.JPG

Hopefully the next instalment will show further progress!

Ian
 
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