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