Farish 08 and outside frames?

On 20/10/2007 13:27, 64Magnette said,

You might want to chat to the 2mm boys, as they have just produced a kit of an 08, and it looks superb. However, I have absolutely no idea whether or not it will be suitable for N-gauge, hence the reason for the chat!

I meant, of course, suitable for *conversion to* N-gauge, just in case anyone misunderstood!

Can be done in N **if** you can make your own wheels on extended axles, and slim the chassis down a bit. To an extent you are on your own in that area, its not designed to be built as N, and the chassis is, to an extent, integrated with the body. The instructions are online, and there is an extensive blog from Graham Ross on how he built his example. Can also be built with DCC, sound chip and speaker inside (really!!, it has been done). There's a chap in the Netherlands who ordered about 20 or 30 bodies from us to put his own mechanisms under them for sale to the N market over there (08's being common on their railways).

Alternatively, Mark Fielder scratchbuilt a mechanism for a Farish body some years ago, including extended axles. He used plasticard to make up the side frames, springs and axleboxes. Think it ran a small Tenshodo open-framed motor on its side (same size as the small Mashima open frame). Same technique should work in N, again if you can make your own wheels with extended axles.

If you think the 08 is impressive, take a look at the 2mm homepage and the Bob Jones 9F kit. I'll put a link to a few more pictures of it up later.

- Nigel

On 21/10/2007 18:07, Nigel Cliffe said,

Wow...

Thank you, it's a great model. I sometimes think I should go the whole hog and work in 2mm rather than scratch building or modifying N! The mods required to the kit would be similar to those for the GF, so I'm not much further forward if I go this route. However, I will be joining the 2mm group as I can see from your shops that I can buy all the bits I need to alter the 08, excluding the frames which I'll probably use plastic for, as well as bits fro other projects on the drawing board. Incidentally, I was chatting with the fellow that runs 'Heritage N' (who have just changed there name) on Sunday and he is proposing to supply a RTR 08 with outside frame next year. For now I'll modify the GF, and add another later, bank balance permitting. BTW great 9F!!!

You get a better body with the 2mm kit; its accurately measured rather than Farish's guesses. But it will cost you a lot of time and money to build.

You are aware that our (2mm scale) wheels do not work on N track. Its not just a matter of the gauge, the tread is too narrow, and will fall down the gap in the turnout crossing in an N turnout.

- Nigel

I wasn't aware of the narrowness of the tread being an issue, do you mean the gap in front of the frog? BTW It was the other components I was going to use e.g. the crank pins, some wagons as well as some of the detailing parts, but your observation is an important point for any other purchases I make, thank you. Following on from your observation regarding the wheels, if I was to use the 2mm 08 I'd still need to modify the GF wheels to allow for the use of 9mm 'narrow gauge' track wouldn't I?

I'm sure there is or was someone somewhere in Britain who made add-on wheel-disks, extended axles and cranks for N/HOe. "Beaver" springs to mind, but it's not my thing so I didn't bother to keep a reference. Once you added those parts to a Farish 08 a simple plasticard outside frame would be easy to fabricate.

Regards, Greg.P. NZ

Yes. The flange clearances in N mean that a 2mm wheel can fall into the flangeway in the area of the crossing nose (Frog).

Its like P4 in relation to 00. Don't expect the wheels to run on one both standards.

There are now wagon wheels with N tread patterns, to encourage N gauge modellers to try 2mm stuff. Then they can pop out the N wheels, and drop in

The 2mm 08 uses split-frames. The axles are half-axles, held together in a plastic sleeve. Each wheel is metal.

If you put a Farish wheel into the frames (which would be hard!), the frames would be shorted together, so it needs electrical modification to deal with that problem.

The more obvious routes to an N model with the 2mm parts are either: a) Your own mechanism. b) New wheels, of split frame type, and reducing the frame spacer widths to bring the frames closer together. You'd also have to do a load of clearance sums (eg. do the gears now fit, or do they need thinning to clear); the space between the frames in an N loco is only about 80% of that in a 2mm loco (because the wheels are so fat in N, it forces the frames in a long way).

You may find it quicker to find longer axle steel for the Farish wheels, and push the wheels and gear from the existing axles. Then fabricate cranks from some appropriate thickness brass.

- Nigel