The 2mm section of Huddersfield Railway Modellers

Our section of the club, is in a way 2 clubs in one. The 2mm group is also The Yorkshire area group, of the 2mm Scale Association. We currently a small group, and as most of the members live out of the Huddersfield area we only meet once a fortnight to reduce the transport costs. Our current project is an ambitious 4 track main line based on the Colne Valley.

The layout is virtually unique in that it is being built to a dual standard, N Gauge Track for 2 of the main lines and 2mm finescale for the other 2 main lines and adjacent Goods yard. 2mm FS is a long established scale which uses a track gauge of 9.42mm, a near scale Rail depth and much finer wheel and Pointwork standards than N gauge. All the necessary components are readily available to members of the 2mm Scale Association, and any one looking for more information would find their website very useful, www.2mm.org.uk It may seem strange to mix N Gauge and 2mm, on the same layout but in fact it can work surprisingly well. The trick is to avoid any visible turnouts on the N gauge section, and use Peco’s excellent (if Badly named) Finescale code 55 Track. When this track is carefully ballasted and set to a slightly lower bed, the difference is not so apparent, in fact it looks very much like Modern Flat bottom rail laid next to the traditional bullhead.

The layout itself as mentioned earlier is based on the Colne Valley, and in particular the area around Milnsbridge and Longroyd Bridge. The centrepiece is a nearly full length model of Milnsbridge Viaduct; the shape of the Viaduct was Accurately cut from a CAD drawing using a sophisticated Laser cutting machine. The Goods yard is heavily influenced by Longwood Goods the once busy but now derelict yard west of Milnsbridge. The Station area although located to the East of the Viaduct and in approximately the same position as Longroyd bridge Station is actually based more on the features of Golcar.

In addition to our Thursday night activities, the group is very active within the 2mm scale association. We regularly provide demonstration stands at National Shows such as Warley and York, and up until its retirement in 2001 we exhibited our previous Layout Honley at a number of shows.

The following pictures were taken in February 2006