Let me start with a definitive statement; today I have, after a very long time, began to build a layout. To arrive at this point on this bitterly cold, wet, and blustery day has been not begin without its difficulties. There have been many abortive attempts, but due to illness, moving house, lack space, and designing a layout that worked for me. I have been a keen fan of the Settle and Carlisle Railway, but lack of space and stock preclude such an enterprise. At the Adelaide Exhibition, Gavin Thrum had his version of Minories on display. It has been featured in Railway Modeller under the name Great Moor Street. You can also view it on his blog https://thrumlington.blogspot.com/search/label/LMS I have known Gavin for a very long time, and we got into a conversation about it after I mentioned I had toyed with the idea of building a version of it but had been discouraged by the lack of goods facilities. However, as you can see, Gavin had overcome that problem. As we discussed various possible changes, some one in the rapidly forming group said: "wouldn't be interesting having Gavin's OO version and your 2mmfs version alongside each other at the next exhibition." Now you can see where this is going. At the Railex 2016 exhibition Alan Whitehouse and Mick Simpson, two great stalwarts of the 2mmFS association attempted to build a working 2mmFS version of Minories. It failed by a whisker, only if they had that extra hour, but it did prove that a finescale was achievable in a short amount of time. The reason they failed was it took longer for the glue to dry than they expected. The main part of the layout has been drawn out using Templot. I have yet to resolve some ideas about the goods yard, so just the entrance track has been drawn in. The baseboards are a bit of innovation for me. Much in favour in the US is building baseboards out of high-density foam Ian Rice have done the same with his new layout featured in his Cameo Layouts book. So some foam sheet was purchased from the local DIY chain and framed with 75 x 19 mm timber. Thinner plywood would have been better to frame it with, but I don't have any facilities to cut it. As age is getting the better of me (getting old sucks), I find increasingly difficult to thread the rod from the point motor through a baseboard into that tiney winey hole in the tie bar. Every advancing year that bloody hole gets smaller. This time I thought I would attempt to mount the turnout motors above the baseboard as well as the wiring. In the photograph, Tortoise point motors, as well as servos, can be seen as to how they would fit in. There would be a back scene in front of them. I haven't quite made up my mind which to use. A 2mmFS turnout only has .7mm movement at the blades which may be a bit excessive using Tortoise motors. Ron Solly seems to think that they would be OK. I think he did say, that if the force broke the tie-bar, he would repair it. The white box is the Digitrax DS64 which is used to control the Tortistes and, the circuit board is a Tam Valley Depot product to control the servos. The advantage of servos is not only their size but, they can be programmed to switch off at a point in either direction. On the other hand Tortoises can be used to switch the polarity in the common crossing were as Tam Valley board needs an additional 5V relay to do the switching. Of course, they can provide it; at a cost. I have found a source 5V relays, which are a lot cheaper. I will not be worried if at the end of the day Gavin is unable to exhibit together as I will have a nice little layout to take to exhibitions if I want to. A DMU or two can trundle up and down the main line under computer control I am entertaining myself shunting a train in the yard and talking to the punters. The size of the layout is 10' x 1' as that is all the space that is available. Welcome to my world Looking down the layout. Kind regards Geoff
I've always fancied a minories type layout - one day perhaps before old age renders me unfit. Good luck!
Never realised that was a version of Minories. Just was impressed with the overall look of the layout and how it operated. My second pick after Black River. Although I primarily model what I grew up with (transition era NSWGR) I have a liking for LMS layouts. Good luck with your project. cheers Bob
"Ron Solly seems to think that they would be OK. I think he did say, that if the force broke the tie-bar, he would repair it." Thanks Chatty !!!!
Bob Thank you. I well remember the transition era in NSWGR as well. Many a day was spent on Hornsby station and Cowan Bank. Phil Badger has been trying for years for me to come over to the dark side. Nearly succumbed on a couple of occasions. Kind regards Geoff
Looking forward to following your thread Geoff. Now you have started, there is no stopping you ! Cheers, Gary.