Well, benchwork and trackage have taken a back seat for the past 6 weeks or so.  I’ve been dealing with some medical issues and am having difficulty doing many (most) tasks required in the layout’s construction.  But in spite of that, I’m still doing things as I can each weekend.

I managed to get about two-thirds of the optical detectors installed prior to my troubles.  In recent weeks I’ve installed a bit of roadbed at the Willis yard and I’ve made very good progress on my control panel designs.  I plan to have approximately 15 control panels around the layout.  Two of them will be for the yards at Monterey and Willis, and the rest will be “mini-panels”, typically 5″ high x 8″-10″ wide.  These smaller panels will be at the various towns along the line and will contain track plan snippets along with switch position indicators (LEDs) and the toggles used to control the Tortoise switch machines.  A few of them will be used for the hidden staging tracks, with the LED track occupancy indicators giving the engineer visual cues as to where his train is.

I’ll be using the tried and true “sandwich” method of panel construction.  I’ll sandwich a print-out of the appropriate plan between a piece of 1/8″ Masonite and some 0.1″ acrylic plastic.  Next drill the holes for the toggles and LEDs, install and wire same, then mount the panel to a box or directly to the fascia.  I used this method on my last layout and was quite pleased with the result.

Over the past month I ordered all the electrical components I’ll be needing from Jameco Electronics, so I’m now ready to build a mock-up of a panel.

I’ve also been acquiring several other items and materials that I’ll be needing so as soon as my health issues are resolved, I can get back to the heavy-duty construction.

We’re also getting into that time of year where all sorts of railroading events take place.  The calendar is already starting to fill out with planned activities.  I hope to see some of you folks at some of these.  The only event that is still missing is a good train show with vendors.  It’s a shame we aren’t on the regular circuit for one of those.

Any questions or comments?  Please post or drop a line…I like hearing from you.

-Jack