Sorry no pictures yet, I'll take some tomorrow, so this is just a teaser.
I hooked up two of my Tam Valley Singlets and got the servos installed - pretty easy, the alignment it's super picky as long as there is enough room for the arm to move back and forth to completely move the points. The self adjust feature finds the proper servo endpoints, and the rest of the programming is really simple - easist to me is to use Ops Mode and program loco 01. Four CVs control the color of the LEDs, I stuck with red and green. Since I don;t have any fascia installed yet, and I really don't want to install it until I finish the bus wiring - easier to crawl under and more light uderneath without it in place - I needed to do somethig to hold the two controllers so I could use them - hanging by the wires is not an option. Looking around I saw a cardboard box with the flap in decent condition. So I cut the flap off, and using the template supplied with the Singlet, drilled holes in it and mounted the Singlets. Then I ran a few screws through the cardboard to screw it to the side rail of the layout. Works perfectly. I assigned DCC address to them, wrote those addresses on the cardboard, and also drew in the track diagram with a Sharpie. So I can operate the turnouts with the pushbuttons or via DCC switch commands.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
We need to see this Randy!
Sounds like something I would do, only I used some 'old' 4"x8" pcs of frosted butyrate(don't ask) and mounted my toggles to it so i could run the Tortise's. They are still working!
Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Between the time I finished the turnouts and test wiring of the Mikasa (Down staging) yard throat and the time I finished and installed the Nonomura control panel I was hand-throwing the switches and controlling hot frog power with a jury rig - jumper wires connecting studs screwed into a track diagram drawn on a small cardboard box with a Sharpie. The box (which had carried toner cartridges in more mundane life) also had enough internal space for the Tech II that I was using for locomotive control.
When I finally got the permanent panel (and the RIX switch machines) installed, nothing gave me as much pleasure as removing that box, stripping it and consigning it to the recycling bin.
One thing to watch, Randy. If that's corrugated cardboard, it will gradually compress. You have to keep checking the screws for tightness.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I'll get some pictures up today. It IS corrugated, but it's already about as compressed as it's going to get. If I keep up my current pace I should be replacing it with the real masonite fascia by the new year - of course now that I can actually do something other than run the train back and forth that may all go down the tubes.
OK, here it is in all its cardboard glory!
Front:
Back:
It may not be prettym but it works, good enough for now, until I get to the real fascia. This spot on the layout is actually where the cement plant penninsula will attach.
All of my control panels are make from old traffic signs or other aluminum signs that I beg from my local township maintenance shop. I have also purchased aluminum. sinage from my local home center, shuch as EXIT, BEWARE OF DOG, and so on. The thickness ranges from 1/16" to 1/8" depending on the size of the panel. I either sand off the lettering or use the reverse side of the sign. I then layout the panel for all of the necessary holes that need to be drilled. I do the cutting to size with my table saw using a carbide tipped fine cut saw blade, (WEAR SAFETY GLASSES AND BEWARE OF HOT DEBRIS. Once all of the cutting and drilling is done, I clean the panel with laqure thinner. let the panel dry completely. I then spray the panel with rustoleum paint. I use (white). After the paint has dried for 24 to 48 hours, I then apply all of the necessary lettering with vynal stick on letters, (colors and sizes used depend on the application 1/4" and 1/2". I use red for specific info, like on, off, left, right and blue for general info. power supply 1 power supply 2, and so on. For my freight yard, and other track mapping I use 1/8" automotive pinstripe tape. After all lettering and mapping is complete, I spray clear laqure over the entire panel, to seal all of the lettering and pin stripe tape. You must allow AT LEAST 72 hours, I wait 4 to 5 days at least. for the color to dry before applying the clear coat, or the clear coat will crinkle up. Good looking control panels are as important as a good looking layout. good luck.
ccg
Randy,
Nice work and that cardboard control panel looks extremely elegant.
I hope not to disappoint you, but you are not the first one to construct a control panel out of corrugated board. That is one of my favorite tricks. LOL
Someone should start a thread on the topic of makeshift mounts for toggle switches. Sometimes, in the process of modifying my layout, I just lay them on the top of the layout. How gauche !
Rich
Alton Junction
I'm sure I'm not anywhere near the first. On my old layout I had one I used a scrap of stryene to mount a toggle for a Tortoise in screwed to the side of the benchwork, in addition to the nice ones I made out of plexiglas as seen in the "Old Stuff" part of my web site.
I showed the one picture to another non-model railraod forum and based on a suggestion there, there has been one addition - the panel is now labeled as Conjunction Junction.
Wow, cool web site, Randy.
I never paid attention to the link until you just mentioned it.
I try.
Just picked up some tempered hardboard tonight, so a more permanent fascia is in the offing. I have to figure out how I want to do it - paint it a light color, tape the rail lines, paint it a dark color, remove tape, or do the opposite, or just leave it and use the tape as the line markers, or paint it light and use a dark tape - too many options, and I can find examples of all of them. I guess I'll just have to study each one and figure out which one I like the best - probably the hardest one to do, if I know anything. Very nice to go to Lowe's, they cut up a 4x8 sheet into 7 1x4 pieces plus a shorter one - apparantly it's not a full 8 feet long, probably metric. It's too much shorter to be just the loss from the saw kerf, but at any rate I did nt have to figure out how to haul a 4x8 sheet home and then cut it up, now it's just all ready to go up. And one sheet gave me enough to do almost the whole thing. For under $8.
Hey neat idea, beats mine I have then stuck into the bench work with a couple of push pins each I was planing on just adding mine to the fascia eventually.