Multiple control panels--how did you do it?

[Seamonster]

Having recently acquired more real estate for my N scale layout [:D] I'm expanding it. The old layout was 2' X 16' linear, in 3 sections. I'm planning a U-shaped configuration and will be separating the sections, putting new benchwork between them. I'm also making serious changes to the existing trackwork. I'm using conventional DC, 2-cab control. I had one control panel at the 8' long yard section with a diagram of the entire 16' on it with block and turnout controls and a throttle on each side.

What I want to do is keep the control panel at the yard, but make it a secondary control panel for just the yard. I'd like to have a dedicated throttle for the yard. I'd like to put the turnout and cab controls on the fascia where the turnouts and blocks are located, and use walkaround throttles for the rest of the layout. I'd like to have 2 walkaround throttles but I can't quite figure out how to hand off control to the yard throttle. It would be nice if a mainline throttle could bring a train partly into the yard before handing off control.

I'm sure somebody out there has done something similar. I'm equally sure the solution must be simple and obvious, but I just can't quite figure it out. (No, DCC would not be a solution for me.) Any ideas? TIA.
...Bob

[Anonymous]

My memory of this is not perfect, Bob, but I seem to remember reading a long time ago in an Atlas wiring book about using one of their selector buttons (as you may know, there are 4 buttons on each block selector) to connect to another selector for a yard. I'm not suggesting you use Atlas components, but the same could be done with toggles on a layout map. You move your train into a special track between your main and the yard, and then a toggle hands off control to the yard engine, which is on a third power pack. I hope you can imagine what I'm talking about. I am fuzzy on it myself, but I know it's in the Atlas wiring book, and could be adapted to toggle control. It's actually a pretty neat idea, and let's the yard switcher work independently from the main line trains.

[leighant]

One way to do it might be with a modification of "two-train wiring". Two-train wiring generally lets you use two power packs or throttles, and each block of track has a two-position that lets you choose throttle A or throttle B to power that chunk of track. Lots of wiring books and articles have that.

The modification is this. You have all the layout except yard trackage on a panel with two-way throttle selection. (Actually it doesn't matter so much where panels are located physically, all controls could be in one panel but with differents parts of the panel wired differently. Two separate panels would proibably be easier to keep straight.)

On your yard control panel, you also have two-position switches to feed each chunk of track. (Actually, all your dead-end spurs can be satellite switches that are simply on-off fed from the lead track/ladder that accesses them since a train can't go anywhere without going through the ladder....) The two-way switches choose either Yard engine throttle or Road engine throttle for each chunk of track. Then for the entire yard panel, one two-way switch chooses either Road throttle A or Road throttle B to be the Road throttle selected for all the yard/road selectors. Only 1 road engine at a time can come into and leave the yard without interruption, but it can be either one-- there is no need for any "special track section" where control is swapped from one panel to another.

Also, it is possible to work with two road engines in the yard at the same time-- but the yard switcher will have to be parked on a dead block somewhere and the "yard" throttle used for one of the road engines. The engine that is on the "road" throttle on the yard panel will have to be either run out of the yard, or stopped and its block deadened. Then the second road engine can have its selector switched to "road throttle" and the "yard road throttle selector" switched to road throttle B.

I hope this is not too hard to understand. If you have done two-train wiring, this is a very simple addition. You just have one two-way selection switch for every block on the layout whether in the yard or on the road, and one additional two-way selection switch to select Road Throttle A or B when in the yard. Got it?

We even got this to work on a club layout with a number of different abilities, attitudes and philosophies.... if you know what I mean!

[rrinker]

geoeisele, you aren't having memory problems. Atlas DID show how to do this in the wiring diagram for "The Big Panhandle" layout, #210 in my copy of the 2nd Edtion of "Custom Line HO Scale Railroads". Just need to decipher the internal wiring of the Atlas components to roll your own. I haven't studied this carefully, but I THINK their scheme will NOT work unless you use common rail wiring.

--Randy

[relation]

Seamonster I did the samething I added a yard and on my main panel I replaced one of the DPDT toggals switches with a rotory swtch and added a third throttle for the yard.

[cwclark]

it should be simple if you use CAB CONTROL wiring as mentioned above...two power packs to run a section of track...what i've done is made a hand held throttle CAB A and another power pack as CAB B..it works great..if you send me your e-mail address, i'll send you some schematics i drew up on microsoft word that i hope could be help if you like...Chuck

[Seamonster]

Thanks for the ideas, guys! It looks like I had the right ideas in my head, I just couldn't visualise them. I think I'll use the idea of a "common" track, i.e. the inbound track, like geoeisele suggested and have the road engine drop off the cars, then leave. If the road engine needs to come into the yard, like for servicing, then after it's stopped it can be switched over to control by the yard throttle with the yard engine parked on a dead track. Thanks again for the ideas. I just needed a little stimulation to get it right.
...Bob

[mcouvillion]

Seamonster,

I wired a conventional yard just as you described several years ago. There was an inbound/outbound track that the road cabs could get to, but by flipping a DPDT switch converted to the yard power. Essentially, I wired the two road cabs through a DPDT switch first to select the road cab, then wired that DPDT switch into another DPDT switch that selected whether the road cab or yard cab was to be used. Not hard, just a little extra wiring.

For the turnouts, I built a full control panel at one end of the yard, but built a "repeater" control panel for the turnouts at the other end, since it was too far to walk back and forth and operate effectively. The turnout motors were controlled by momentary contact pushbuttons, so it was easy to connect the momentary contacts from each end to the circuit that controlled the turnout motors. I even had route selection developed so the yard crew could push only one or two buttons to align all of the turnouts. It took a while to wire, and it was all done with relay logic. The relay board looked like the old-style phone company switching station, but it was all wired one wire at at time. Start with the simple and obvious, then add and test each addition. Sooner than you realize, you'll be finished.

I spent many a weekend/evening wiring this thing on the kitchen table. It was real easy to install after I had finished testing it where I could comfortably work on it.

Mark C.

[Seamonster]

Mark, it sounds like you did pretty much what I'm planning to do, except I won't need a repeater panel for the yard. I know what you mean about working on the control panel on the table where it's easy. I wired everything in my panel on the workbench and tested it there before attaching it to the layout. Now, when I open the panel and look at all that wiring and all those switches and think that I'm about the strip it all out and replace it, I remember all those hours, days and weeks at the workbench wiring it and I want to cry. But, it's gotta be done. Somehow, ripping up trackwork and turnouts and reconfiguring some of the tracks doesn't seem as traumatic.

The main reason I built the layout in sections was so that I could pick them up, tip them up on their backs, clamp them to a table and do all the underneath wiring sitting comfortably in a chair. I'm getting too old and stiff to lie on my back on the floor with my arms up in the air! Sectional is the way to go. One piece at a time, do the dirty work sitting down, then put it in place and do the scenery.
...Bob