How many operators will you have?
If it's one at a time you're okay to go for local switching... if you will have a number you are safer with central.
OR... you csn go for both... use a multi position switch for selecting at the control board and give it an option for local control... then you have that facility when you want it/you're working alone.
Hey Man,
If you have the time, I agree with Dave. Go with both. That is mine. Only one extra switch and some wiring (not to fancy). Link is below. I LOVE mine... the best part is, while you are building/wiring your central panel, you can still use the fascia switches and RUN trains!!! Link is http://www.wiringfordcc.com/sw_ctl.htm ; I use version b below with bicolor LED's on each route at each location (therefore 4 leds), so parallel is better since I get no voltage drop...
Brian
a. Multiple controls for a single slo-mo motor with series indicators.You can put indicator LEDs IN SERIES with each motor - No resistors are required to limit the LED current, but each LED will reduce the voltage available to run the motor. If you connect R-G LEDs in inverse parallel or use one of the 2-leaded bi-color parts, the color will change when the motor & switch is thrown the other way.
b. Multiple controls for a single slo-mo motor with parallel indicators.You can wire one or several LEDs IN PARALLEL with (across) the motor terminals if you use a separate resistor to limit current to the LEDs. The bi-directional bi-color ideas still work. With this connection all motors & LED circuits see a constant voltage. Select the resistor value to provide 10-20 ma to LEDs. Use the equation in the section on Using Miniature Lamps to compute resistor value.
My experience, If you opperate from a stationary throttle, you want the toggles there. If you have a walk around throttle, you want the turnout controls, by the turnouts. Otherwise you are walking back and forth too much for comfort.
In prototype language, do you carry a switchman with you on the train as you go, or is everything remote from a central tower and the train sort of drives itself.
When I went to DCC with radio, I started to change all my controls to the place where the train actually was.
(Dating myself terribly here!) I use a modified form of the MZL wiring system developed by the late Ed Ravenscroft, described in several Model Railroader articles back in 1974. There are actually THREE locations for control of turnouts and plugins for hand-held throttles (no wireless back then.)
With the complete system in place, the layout owner can turn a crew loose with a train, retaining CTC control of powered switches and setting up their electrical routing from the main panel. A solo operator who only wants to run through trains, making meets and passes as required by TTTO, can do it all from the main panel (and spend most of his time enjoying the show.)
The entire railroad can be operated from zone panels, even if the main panel hasn't been installed! All of the route and power setup, even for a movement through several zones (express passenger or through freight,) is done before the highball is given. Within a zone, power routing is largely automatic, controlled by turnout point position - one good reason for having LOTS of contacts on a switch machine!
Having local control over immediately-adjacent trackwork makes it possible to throw switches two or three yards away from the zone panel without either growing a long tentacle or wearing a groove in the deck. Another item, ONLY controlled locally, would be powered or otherwise normally dead uncoupling devices, which should only be controlled from a place where the operator can see what is going on.
There is one added bonus, but a big one. With this system, head-on collisions are electrically impossible, as are 99% of sideswipes. Even rear-to-rear collisions are almost impossible to arrange. Saves lots of wear and tear on the rolling stock when several novices are at the throttle.
Chuck (who enjoys designing electromechanical interlocking systems)
Art has a good point on DCC, if you are THINKING of DCC use remote. The central panel would be fine if you do not want to get up cloase and watch the engine working in an area. If you want to follow it around or do a lot of switching then local is the answer.
With that said:
Use the contol panel for main line control and local for sidings, if possible.
Yes, I concur with Art...make it so you can do central control if you have plug in or stationary control or make local if you want walk-around. I did both, so that when I get radio in a few years, I have flexibility. IF you do both, make sure you have turnout positioning indicators (LED's) so when little hands (like my sons) switch things at the main panel, you notice!
Tomikawa TT That's good.
!974? A mere whippersnapper!
Do you have the reference for the articles please?
if you enjoy designing systems can i come back to you with my layout when I make some progress (about 2050 at present rate of progress).
Hi, Dave,
Ed Ravenscroft's MZL system was designed for 'old-fashioned DC' using some components no longer common, such as rotary-relay switch machines. How well it would adapt to DCC is a ???
The Model Railroader articles:
My adaptations retain the general appearance of the panels while modifying (and simplifying) the track power routing circuits, controlling twin-coil switch machines with rotary (position - indicating) panel switches and adding fully interlocked start, home and distant signals. The signal controls are also rotaries, appropriately positioned in relation to the track schematic on the panel.
I saw this system in operation on Ed's Glencoe Skokie layout once. Before that, I'd adapted it for use on two club layouts where I had become chief panel designer by default. After seeing his final version, I incorporated the refinements that I have been using on my end-of-line module since 1980. The only change has been a new panel (incorporating old circuitry!) completed two years ago.
Ed Ravenscroft was a Master Model Railroader and President of the NMRA, and a significant innovator. He was one of the major forces behind the "NMRA" horn-hook coupler (and used them long after the rest of the world had gone to Kadees) and the originator of the "manhole cover on the roof" car tab routing system.
Chuck (who had been a model railroader for 30 years when he adopted the modified MZL system)