I finished mounting my layouts control panel Sunday afternoon. Now just waiting for Miniatronics to ship my momentary SPDT switches that I ordered yestersday. I am starting to really enjoy working on my layout as I can now see great progress being made. I eventually will go DCC but having bought a new computer Fri DCC is on the rear burner for the time being. [ 11 March 2002, 02:03: Message edited by: leghome ]
Larry, Nice panel. Tell us about the panel. What's it made of? How did you apply the track diagram: tape, paint, or something else? Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.pegnsean.net/~revnjeff
I'm another Canadian EH !! I lve in the wine and lake country in central British Columbia in an area called the Okanagan Valley. I model The Canadian National Railway in the 30's to the mid 50's era in Western Canada for sentimental reasons having a Dad and two brothers that spent there entire working lives on the CN and CPR railways. I am a steam engine kitbasher and a signal design nut that plays with electronics, but no DCC for me. Nice to see where all you good people are from. Keep on tracking !
The control Panel is made of 1/8" Lucite/plexiglass mounted in a frame made of Aspen. I designed my track plan with Atlas RightTrack freeware and printed it on onion skin paper. I taped the onion skin on the front of the Lucite and started putting pinstripe tape on the back side. I used different colors of tape for the different tracks. Red for the main line, black for the yard and tracks leading to the yard, Gold for the secondary line and burgandy for the sidings. After I had all of the tape in place I just spray painted the back side of the Lucite before mounting it in the frame. I am now in the process of drilling the holes for the control switches and have started the wiring. I had thought about back lighting the paenl but with all of the wires decided not to as they would more than likely have shown as shadows.
