Author

Tom Cunnington

Date

6th June 2025

Reading Time

4 minutes

“Golden Mile” is a modern day 2mm finescale layout. Originally constructed as part of the 2mm Scale Association’s Diamond Jubilee competition, it is built to a specific sized scenic section. The layout has been around for a while (its first show was in Feb 2020), very much as a side project, and it is always a surprise when it gets an invite given its size. However we had one to the Salisbury Railex show organised by the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Society at Thruxton race circuit in May. As ever, a show deadline is the impetus for me to make progress and it was time to undertake some P&C work.

The layout is now fully automated – mainly using Microbits (you can see us explain them at a recent MERG meeting at Keen House here: https://youtu.be/-cfmqEjyENg). The barrier to full automation was that the 2mmSA point kit I built didn’t work reliably enough to be able to automate the loco that is simulating running round a train. It was my first 2mm point – and as others will have heard me say at track building courses, the first one is often a duff, the second one is better and by the third you’ll be fine. Rather than another of the same point, this time I used a British Finescale kit – same dimensions, but different construction. It went together pretty easily – except that I broke the first tie bar which Wayne the manufacturer kindly replaced for me.

Lifting and replacing a point after ballast has been laid is always a challenge but it went in more easily than I thought. At the same time as replacing the point, we replaced the Tortoise point motor with a Servo. With the new point wired up and tested, I reballasted the track whilst Oliver used a couple of microbits – one attached to a Drivebit and the other to a Servobit – to automate the loco and point. The idea here is that the loco has detached from the train out of sight, and runs forward into the headshunt before the point changes and it runs back down the other line.

The two microbits communicate with each other by Bluetooth to ensure they work in the right sequence – the Drivebit to control the loco and the Servobit to drive the pint servo. It can in fact drive up to 15 points…. But we have no plans to extend the layout. After some soak testing, we were confident that the point itself and the automaton was reliable enough and set up correctly. I continued with weathering the remainder of the rolling stock, and for the fixed rakes switched from Dapol auto couplings to Hunt magnetic couplings following success with them on Minories.

Arrival at the show was simple – the beauty of a table top layout is apparent with a reasonable start from London in time for the show opening. Once up and running, the layout then pretty much looked after itself – other than a bit of track and wheel cleaning. That gave us the opportunity to fully engage with visitors to the show whilst keeping the corner of our eye on the layout. And watching the planes and helicopters landing in the airfield next door…

The microbits caught the eye of plenty of younger visitors and teachers – given they are ubiquitous in education these days. Lots of others were interested in the ideas we have used. And of course we met a couple of people who knew the area, and others with an interest in bin liners. I was definitely talked out by the end of each day.

The rest of the year it is back to Minories on the road – with invites to expoEM in Wakefield in August, Fareham in October and Newbury in November. And Golden Mile is invited to the Abingdon exhibition in March 2026