Portland Manual Control or not

Since Portland is basically isolated from the rest of the layout except for the bridge to get there AND only one train at a time will be there, it will be dark territory. The only exception would be a signal to get back on the main near Brunswick.

There will also be a couple of tortoises used to stop a train if the bridge is open. With that the requirement for Computer nodes will be low.

I am considering having the whole area in manual control since it will be dark anyway. So if anyone out there has an opinion (especially if you new the old layout) let me know.

If I go with electronics it would require two control panels, two I/O nodes, some detection for the DS (if necessary), all of this I already have, so the only cost would be the extra wires needed (not an issue). So basically it is having a section completely manual where the rest of the layout is all on the computer.

Any thoughts?

Chuck

Swing gate is done

I believe I have a good swing gate. Opens and closes smoothly has a nice tight locking mechanism. It rolls on four wheels.
The lock can easily be reached as you can imagine on the left side where it has the O & C at the facia. There will be a micro switch placed on the right side so that when the gate opens, a tortoise on either side of the bridge will push a wire up between the tracks so no trains can do the vertical drop.
The table top of Portland has 16 feet installed with to be installed tomorrow. Conservative estimates put this addition at about 35 car spots

Lower Benchwork Nearing Completion

The swing gate is in and just about all of the lower benchwork is in. I got about 19' in one direction and 11' in the other. The area will be mostly waterfront. Now to start working on the track plan.

Working on the Swing Gate

The start of the swing gate. It sits on four wheels. Once the hinge is installed I could take off two of the wheels if needed.

So far the tolerances are too tight to swing properly. It pushes straight out fine, but is too tall and narrow to be left free standing. So there will be some adjustments to the swing coming.

The bottom picture gives you an idea of what the isle would be like when the gate is open.

Finally back to work

I was held back since the Oct. Session for many reasons, but now I finally got started again. Today I put up 16' of bench work to get over to the Wharf area. Now I must figure out a swinging gate system for the trains to get to this area and it must be reliable.
I will also have to figure out exactly where those cabinets will end up.