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.

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!)

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

The Digitrax DZ126IN listed by Coastal DCC would also be suitable. I've used it in a couple of American TT locos where space is very limited and it does the job.

All right, I decided not to sell the layout but to add some more detail instead. This is one of the Scalescenes OO scale small fishing boats, reduced to 87 percent for HO. It's trying to moor but "we're gonna need a bigger winch!" The jib crane is from Goodwood Scenics, and behind that a small warehouse/shop from Clever Models. A shot of most of the layout... and one of the far end where the boss of Ahab Marine inspects a newly-delivered winch. I've got it booked into the Kempston show, near Bedford, in September.

I've just made the Double Peak Wooden Warehouse by Clever Models in HO scale and it was very easy to do. Printing on A4 it did miss off about 1mm from the right hand side but I could probably have prevented this with margin settings. The instructions are generic though, not tailored to this specific model, and I stuck the main building onto card that was too thick so that there was a bit too much relief in the doors and windows. You don't get a choice of signs or different finishing touches, but perfectly passable.

That is a very nice model. I'm looking forward to seeing how you motorise it.

I also had trouble finding the mags at first. I hadn't received a reminder about the latest one. Then I renewed my membership (at zero cost), signed in afresh, then had to click another sign in button to see the mags. But at least now I know! It's always good to read about TT. Maybe now I've renewed I'll get an automatic email reminder for the next issue.

Another photoshoot before the layout goes on sale (I think...) More about the layout at http://mattersofinterest.co.uk/northfieldharbor.html

A few more additions to the layout. The main one is the extension wall to the left of the sea module, which will make a nice team track. Lke the sea module it just pulls away for storage. The concrete surfaces were a mess and I've painted them over. Also added some boats and other detailing, and more greenery. But this layout spends most of its time in bits stored on a shelf. My HO locos and stock, pretty much a leftover from a previous layout, mostly sit forlornly on the window sill. So in the new year I may put it all up for sale and focus on TT. There again...

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.

That's a neat piece of work.

Keith - if you ever run out of HO scale springs, I have some spare and can let you have a few. For American TT scale I use HOn3 couplers (Kadee 714s), which is both good and bad. Good because the spring is enclosed in the draft gearbox and can't come out. Bad because you have to assemble the coupler first and get the spring into place yourself. And HOn3 springs are smaller than HO springs. For one coupler I put what I thought was a tiny dab of PTFE grease on the end of the spring to keep it in place, and ended up gumming up the whole coupler mechanism.

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.

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.