Guest Gauge - 2mm scale with 9.42 mm track gauge
Wansbeck Road represents a County Durham colliery village station and is set in the period 1957 - 1962. Although some of the structures on it are based on prototype locations the layout has no connection with any place, being purely a figment of my imagination. The layout has been designed to be viewed from what is described as normal viewing distance (NVD) which in 2mm scale can be anything from between 15" to 2' 6". I have tried to model everything to a consistent overall standard, which is where I feel some models fail. Visitors to Scaleforum can judge if I have been successful.
Baseboards are fairly standard; 6mm plywood box section glued and pinned with cross-members 'hole sawed' to make them as lightweight as possible. Trackwork is constructed to 2mm Scale Association standards using a plastic track base for plain track and pointwork of soldered construction. Buildings are scratchbuilt from balsa and cardboard with brick papers. Windows are my own etchings, manufactured by Fence Houses Model Foundry. Locomotives are largely scratchbuilt. Some diesels appear, and Bachmann items have been converted to fine scale. Rolling stock is a combination of scratch and kitbuilt, with finescale wheels or on 2mm Scale Association etched wagon chassis. Coaching stock: a repainted and re-wheeled Minitrix Gresley brake composite, an etched ex-North Eastern clerestory, and two Bachmann Mk I coaches, all have extra detail added. Couplings are home-made and are known as ELECTRA couplings. It surprises me that more people do not use them.
A working single decker bus, based on the Faller Road System involved re-modelling the left end of the layout and the scenic break, which became a road overbridge. The working road vehicle operation has been expanded and breaks new ground for 2mm fine scale in that it is the first example of Easitrac to see the exhibition circuit, a finescale track system designed and originally produced by 2mm Scale Association members andnow available to all members through the 2mm Scale Association mail order shop.
Wansbeck Road is 24 years old still incomplete . . . Presented by Mick Simpson
