Sorrento Park - American TT

[rodshaw]

Meet the new layout, just like the old layout...

Well, not quite, but Sorrento Park will in many ways intentionally be like my current layout, Naples Street, which I intend to retire after one more show in February. The track plan is almost identical, and it's the same scale and a similar theme - a North American industrial switching layout.

I have a potential show for this new layout next August, so plenty time to finish it hopefully.

I wanted the layout to be super light and easily transportable so the baseboards are made from balsa wood topped by foamboard and cork sheet. One is 36in. by 9in. and the other is 18in. by 9in. The track and turnouts are the new Peco TT range, apart from the fiddle yard section, which uses some Peco HOm I had left over. I might replace these with the new Peco TT small radius turnouts when they are available.

The Peco Unifrog turnouts are very impressive. My American twin-truck locos run over them at low speed without a hiccup, so I haven’t needed to power the frogs.

The turnouts are not self-isolating like Peco's other types, which means that (apart from the frogs) all track is powered at all times. If you are running more than one loco at once on DC you will need some kind of isolating method for sidings, but with DCC, or if you run only one loco at a time, of course this isn’t a problem (that is, until you forget to switch the points and get a derailment).

Because of the conductive nature of the Unifrog turnouts, I discovered that the whole of the main board can be powered by just one track feed despite there being a crossover. However, to ensure there were no drop-outs I fitted two feeds, one at each end.

Turnout control is by brass wire in tube.

The boards fit together by means of wooden dowels glued into the ends. Electrical continuity between them is achieved through nickel silver plates which touch each other when the two boards are pressed together.

 

 

 

Now for the bits I hate - painting the track and laying ballast. But then onto the fun stuff.

[J-Lewis]

What locos are you running on this?  Could you share any pictures?  

[NCB]

Here's my Worsley Works SW1200

Darumya bogie. Needs chassis.

[J-Lewis]

Looks nice.  Brass building is a bit out of my comfort zone.

[NCB]

6 hours ago, J-Lewis said:

Looks nice.  Brass building is a bit out of my comfort zone.

Nickel silver, much easier.

[natterjack]

On 02/05/2023 at 12:33, NCB said:

Darumya bogie

Excellent but could you give more source details for the bogie? I'm not getting much joy from a Google search.

 

I'm guessing the nickel silver is around 8thou?

[NCB]

21 hours ago, natterjack said:

Excellent but could you give more source details for the bogie? I'm not getting much joy from a Google search.

 

I'm guessing the nickel silver is around 8thou?

 0.4mm n/s. I'm afraid the bogie was discontinued some time ago, pity as it had the  correct wheels and wheelbase.

[britishcolumbian]

On 02/05/2023 at 21:59, J-Lewis said:

Looks nice.  Brass building is a bit out of my comfort zone.

There does exist an SW1200 in RTR form from MTB but it is out of production so likely would be difficult to acquire... but worth perhaps keeping an eye out for.

[rodshaw]

On 23/04/2023 at 21:22, J-Lewis said:

What locos are you running on this?  Could you share any pictures?  

 

I'm running two of the MTB/Zeuke SW1200s (now out of stock as mentioned above) and three Lionel display model GP9s which I motorised with can motors and parts from Sebnitz.

Here's a link to the ttnut website showing some photos of the finished layout in the last couple of posts:

https://www.ttnut.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3743

 

[rodshaw]

And here's a link to the web page.

[rodshaw]

Here's a PDF of my article about Sorrento Park in this month's Continental Modeller, sent to me by and copied with permission of the editor:

p544-549 Sorrento Park.pdf

The layout will be at Roade, Northampton on 12 August; Olney on 2 September and Kempston on 30 September.

[rodshaw]

With my next show coming up this Saturday I've finally got round to fixing a long-standing problem with the support table.

I've been using a hinged decorator's paste table at shows. The layout boards sit on short legs which in turn rest on the table. I've used this arrangement for all my show layouts where the organisers can't supply a table. Every time I've used the paste table, the layout sections haven't fitted together without raising one or other by putting packing underneath the layout legs to get them to align. On a desk at home or on a 'proper' table they fit together perfectly.

I got to realise (duh) that contrary to first appearance, the surfaces of the two hinged paste table halves are slightly dished, being made out of a fairly thin hardboard or some such material. This was causing the layout sections to misalign. Well, it would, wouldn't it?

Finally I've got round to fixing it - a length of wood with dowels glued and taped to each end, fitted under each table half and slotting in between the sides to act as a bolster and keep the surface level.

It's only taken me about seven years to fix it.

 

 

[rodshaw]

A shot of the tracks from under the bridge, and one of a new acquisition - Union Pacific SW9 no. 1854, which I've fitted with a Digitrax DZ126IN decoder. This is from a new run by MTB. Nearly all sold out now, but more to come in the new year.

The loco was a bit jerky out of the box but a bit of electrode treatment to spin the wheels for twenty minutes or so cured that.

There were no holes under the cab sides to take the rear side handrails so I had to drill them myself. Otherwise a very nice loco. It's fitted with a NEM651 socket and the body comes away easily so fitting a decoder is easy.

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by rodshaw

[Keith Addenbrooke]

A very nice model - and perfect for this type of layout of course, Keith.

[rodshaw]

Next show for Sorrento Park is tomorrow at Stratton School in Biggleswade.

[rodshaw]

So first outing of the year yesterday at the East Beds MRS show. There certainly seems to be growing enthusiasm for TT, probably because of Hornby's announcements. More than one person said they had bought some and/or were going to build a European or British TT scale layout. Lots of people took pictures. And I got invited to a further four local shows this year and next. From an American outline point of view it's just a pity there's not much available.

While I was having a lunch break two of the club's members took over running the layout. When I got back they said a lady spectator had got quite animated and started waving her arms about, though I didn't catch about what exactly. She knocked the magnetic LED strip off its pelmet, it fell onto the layout and broke the sand silo into pieces. I'd quite like to have seen that. (But maybe not so much if it hadn't been an easy repair!)

[rodshaw]

I was a bit sceptical but I've recently found that when I get the yen, playing trains on Sorrento Park is more fun if I use a simple car routing system I designed using a spreadsheet. I have attached the spreadsheet for anyone to use or adapt. It's a simplified version of the one sold by Micro-Mark. It's designed to be printed on A4 but shouldn't need much or any modification for Letter.

 

Car cards & waybills.xlsx

 

 

 

Each car card specifies a car's road name, running number and type, and shows a photo of the car. Each four-cycle waybill shows the load to be carried with its origin and destination locations. I don't need any more detail than this to work the layout (in fact on the car cards I only really need the photo.) Any waybill can slot into any appropriate car card, and when the car is spotted at its destination the waybill is flipped over to show the next destination.

I don't use any extra paperwork to handle empties or held cars. An empty car is simply designated as having an empty load on the waybill. Likewise, to simulate a car being held at a location, e.g. to finish loading or unloading, I write 'Hold' in the 'From' location of some of the waybills and use these at random - not prototypical as you wouldn't necessarily know when a car is to be held when writing the waybill, but it works when operating a model. Then when the waybill is flipped again the car can be sent on its way to its next destination.

To deal with a car which can't be spotted yet because all its designated spots are taken, I use blue Off-spot labels which I simply insert into the car card in front of the waybill until the car can be moved from the off-spot to its destination.

Most waybills have all four cycles filled in so that a car can be moved to two different locations, or the same car can be used for two different loads. Some waybills have three cycles filled in where the sequence is, for example, from an industry to the team track for cleaning than back to the yard. Having an odd number of cycles also helps to vary the sequences.

Giving flat cars, gondolas and open hoppers removable loads adds to the interest.

The cards are held in two containers made from foamboard, one for the two industries and team track at the left, the other for the industry and fiddle yard at the right.

The photos show a set of car cards reflecting the situation at the left-hand end of the layout (deliberate mistake - I haven't 'emptied' the hopper).

After each sequence I will take off one or two cars, put their cards at the bottom of the pile and introduce one or two others, which ensures that all 16 cars eventually get a go and that a particular sequence rarely repeats.

Obviously there's a time lag after each sequence to re-arrange the cards and waybills, which is why I haven't used them at shows because I don't think people would want to watch me fiddling around with them, but I'm tempted just to see what the reaction is.