Just out of curiosity, how do you some of you DC guys have your control panels setup. Do you do central control, or tethered? Are your switches controlled from one location or spread around the layout?
I operate in DCC, but here is a photo of one of my control panels. I have four of these panels placed around my layout with DPDT switches to control my turnouts.
Rich
Alton Junction
Mine is pretty basic.
The pen light helps me see into the strange dark places in Quincy Yard. The wood stick I use to throw my Peco snap switches. The modified dental explorer I use as my uncoupling tool.
I control my blocks with these. I have to walk around to flip them on and off. Like I said, basic. Mike.
Here are my three. Two for mainline turnouts and one for my yard. My layout is DCC so I don't know how much it will help you.
Chris
Warner Robins, GA
Check out my railroad at: Buffalo and Southwestern
Photos at:Flicker account
YouTube:StellarMRR YouTube account
Spread Around. Six right now. A couple of photos here. Layout is 29 feet long so a central panel is not a great solution for me. Some switches are controllable from two panels.
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
DC control, but not much in the way of control "panels". Only one turnout is motorised (controlled by the switches with the red labels near the right side of the photo below), with everything else manually-operated ground throws. Uncoupling is mostly manually, with permanent magnets in a couple of hard-to-reach spots. I have switches on the layout fascia to control the power at passing sidings or industrial districts, but the area shown below is probably the closest thing to a control panel. I've since added a number of switches on the fascia here to allow me to select which type of walk-around throttle I wish to use: one runs off DC power, through 'phone jacks on the facia, while another uses the same jacks but runs off AC. The other two also run off AC power, but use a different plug-in system.
With only one train running at a time, the wiring is very simple :
Wayne
Another DC guy here. I have two control panels, one for each town.
Mountain Gap
Adobe Flats
I use tethered walk around control. The central pit is fairly small. Just room enough ro me and possibly one other operator.
Tom
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
Rich,
How do you do the red and green in the same light. Is it a dual filament light or LED? Thanks for posting
this is my turntable control panel (not finished but the graphics are all there. I printed the layout from Corelddraw and laminated with clear lam film. Easy to do on a PC and unlimited colors and text.
- Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
This is my control panel for the Bay head loop and yard on my NY&LB RR. It's a bit simple and has yet to be wired up, but it should do the job ok. By the way, the large blue pushbuttons operate electromagnet uncouplers in the coach yard. I still need to make labels.
Jerry
Nice thread and some interesting panels.
Here's mine
It is pretty much a schematic of my whole layout apart from a few new sidings. The larger white keys are 3 position block switches (Cab A off Cab B). Turnout control is either dual pushbutton or two position switch and pushbutton. The blue switches are for isolating the ends of some tracks. I can run it as DC dual cabcontrol or substituting my NCE Powercab as one of the DC cabs as DCC only, I never run both at the same time.
The line on the right joins up with the matching line on the left so I basically have a circle.
The line at the top is my logging branch .
The red LED at the top indicates the status of my CDU unit used for throwing turnouts.
Yellow led indicate turnout settings.
cheers
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
The panel on my former layout...
Most of the operation consisted of trains running through the Johnston scene and switching at Johnston. Control panel was laid out with schematic as it appeared from operator in front of Johnston scene. Lost River and Rio Viejo were two names for opposite ends of the same staging tracks. They were laid out as if seen from walking around to the other side of the layout, though usually operated from the Johnston side (usual front) so that direction of travel was in relation to going through Johnston scene. The shortline to Big Piney was controlled by another panel on the other side of the layout. I had one fixed throttle and one walkaround which was tethered at one end so I could walk to both sides.
Through blocks each have DPDT toggle to select one cab or the other. Narrower lines on the schematic are dead-end spurs which are "satellite blocks," turn-off-able but using whatever cab is selected for the through block to which they are connected. Pairs of pushbuttons at turnouts controlled turnout direction. Similar pushbuttons marked "U" for electromagnetic uncoupling ramps.
Trackplan of layout controlled (mostly) by this panel.
I dismantled the East Texas layout a couple-three years ago, and am slowly slowly building the around-the-room Island Seaport layout. I am still wiring the insides of my first control panel but I recently photographed and uploaded the FRONTof the panel.
My around-the-room layout has Demara dead-end open staging for freight trains and Mallory through hidden-staging for passenger trains up against the walls of the room, so they need to be built first. Later I build the Karankawa Wharves terminal switching railroad in front of the staging (into/ towards the middle-of-the-room operators' space) and the Santa Fe freight yard and passenger station in front of that. Being behind other layout sections not yet built, the staging yards need electrically-operated turnouts, and the entire panel will have a 3-foot umbilical running UNDER the layout sections to be added. I expect to use push-rod and manually operated turnouts on the closer layout sections. I am using one Shinohara three-turnouts-in-one track-switch in Demara Yard and powered it with Tortoises. Therefore the panel has DPDT toggles for those switches. The rest are Peco under-table machines controlled with push buttons.
This panel will control track in the areas up against the top and left side of this "phase one" plan. Phase one also includes just the rest of the route around the room probably with some temporary wiring off panel to run just the through route.
When the layout is completed, I will want to add at least 2 more panels...but they will NOT necessaraily be divided along the length of linear routes, with one panel to control the left side of the room, etc. Rather I will probably have one panel with the schematic of the KK Wharves terminal railroad, and a separate panel for the Santa Fe trackage.
Thank you all very much for your contributions.
Here are a couple of my main panel when I was building the layout.
Since those pics were taken, I've shortened the posts on the rotary switches so the knobs don't stick out so far, and I've numbered the positions of the rotary switches.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
This little one is what I use to control power to the storage tracks off of the turntable. The switch in the middle to the bridge reverses the polarity (yes, I'm an old fashioned DC user):
The panel is styrene on plywood and the graphics are drawn with a Sharpie. The crank to the left provides power to rotate the bridge - it is powered through a 100 to 1 worm/wormgear gearbox).
Here's the turntable:
The figure on the bridge is the polarity switch indicator - when he faces the front, the switch should be in the up position.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Greg Amer
The Industrial Lead
these are my control Panels. Each location has their own panel. Currently there are 7 panels around the layout with several more planned.
Detail on their construction can be found on my website below
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/