The `Old' Stoneybridge steam shed, only the small single-engine stone built shed still standing on a frosty October morning (1999), The old wooden shed which was situated over the lines in front of the stone shed has been long gone and the locos stand open to the weather, A driver & fireman can be seen checking over 80064 in readiness for her next working. There were 6 other locos on shed when this photo was taken, Two GWR `94xx class' 9401 & 9407. Two `Fowler 0-6-0-T' class `Jinty' shunting & light freight engines numbered 47391 & 47394, an unidentified visiting `Standard 5' lays dormant in the shed and a work stained J94 tank loco stands simmering after the mornings shunting duties.
This is an Ex-LMS (BR) 4P 4-4-0 tender loco, 40601 sat on my hand! Just to give you an idea of how small & fiddly 2mm scale modelling really is. The locomotive and tender is 122.4mm long over the buffers and 26.5mm high from the rails to it's dome top, that equates to about 4 & 53/64ths of an inch long, by 1 & 3/64th of an inch high in `Old Money' which is pretty small, The correct `Scale' is actually 2 & 1/16th mm to the foot, but it is commonly known as 2mm scale or just `N'gauge for simplicity. The extra 1/16mm per foot does make a noticeable difference on large structures. There are several specialist manufacturers who turn out wonderful kits in `N scale', most of which are assembled from Plastic or white metal castings & detailed with fine etched brass and nickel silver parts. most of my Ngauge locos are rebuilt and/or detailed Graham Farish RTR models, some requiring no more than a bit of weathering & a crew, others being heavily repaired second hand or damaged items.
The Customised pointwork seen in the left picture below (before it was painted) is made from two PECO Streamline "Medium left-hand points" by removing a straight length of rail from each of the points they can effectively be moved much closer together to model the sort of close fitting pointwork found near most stations, goods yards & various other locations where space was at a premium. The `crossing formation' in the Right hand picture was built from standard Peco medium radius points as purchased (No bits removed) The rails have been painted with a mixture of colours to give an uneven but well used look to the track.
Nested points, that is to say sets of points that are moved so close as to intersect each other, either in the toe-to-toe formation of a double slip or facing in the manner of a scissors crossing but in much less space than `standard' pointwork allows. A great number of such `Non-Purchaseable in RTR model form' track formations can be seen in many locations throughout the U.K. and are still in use today, just look at the trackwork of the approaches to Canon Street station (London) over Canon Street bridge, or Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester & indeed most busy mainline stations & yards and You will see some pointwork that is complex enough to keep even the most dedicated modellers busy for some time in any chosen scale!
