First working control panel

It took me all day to wire this up and program the computer, but I now have my first working control panel. It does work both locally and at the computer. I still need to label it, but I'm thrilled to have gotten the electronics working.

This panel will control the town of Belfast, the wye and the hidden staging at St. Albans.

Control Panels

A while back I was given control panels for my use. The front of the panels have a faceplate that is changeable. Today I spent the day making some of those face plates.
I had designed some of the face plates earlier and the first one I tried showed real quick that the track spacing was not big enough for the push buttons. The lights were also a little close for my liking. I did a little testing with some old panels and came up with new spacing requirements needed for the panels to look good. I went back to the computer to redraw the panels and then went down to start making them.
The first thing was to make the four new face plates without the holes cut and test mount them. Once that was complete I took one panel and started to cut the holes. I promptly screwed up that up by cutting too many holes. Back to cut another one. I finally got my routine down and made three with all the correct holes. I painted them and waiting for them to dry. Tomorrow I'll need to get the proper size tape before I put on the finish coats.

Control Panels

I haven't shown a picture in awhile, so here's some on my recessed control panels. Also, note the slightly extended yard in Portland.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Tough Progress

It took awhile but all the turnouts on the lower level are powered and operable from the computer/dispatchers panel. It took a lot of effort to get the last TSM's installed because I had to modify some of the supports under the benchwork.
I had some problems with the circuit boards (I think). Sometimes I'm not sure what is happening. I eventually got it all working today.
Once I get the blocks cut and powered up I will be able to run from Boston to St. Albans (lower staging to mid staging). That is essentially half of the railroad.

Dispatcher Panel and Computer Control

I have been designing the screen placements for the dispatcher with the help of Dil Huey. The screens are starting to look real good.
I have also got all of the installed turnouts powered up and controllable from the computer. I had some help from Steve Holzheimer. They all work good, but the double slip switches have an issue with getting the correct route display under certain conditions. I'm told this is a fixable condition, which I'll get to after my vacation.
I have half of the occupancy detectors working and I hope to get to the rest of them in the next week.
When all that is done it will be time start powering up the track