Control Panel Ideas on the Emporia Subdivision of the Santa Fe

One of the challenges that we have when building model railroads, is how to make nice looking affordable control panels. Normally the control panel is kind of the interface between the operator and the railroad. What we did, is on the computer, we designed a note in Adobe illustrator, a graphic piece of work, which we then take down and have printed onto printers film, which is used to make printing plates. It's a very durable material with the emulsion on the backside and just a heavy sheet of cleanable plastic on the front side. This is then laminated and/or bonded onto clear, or in my case, frosted white plexiglass which we then backlit with a fluorescent fixture. Since control panels are basically a graphical interface between the operator and the railroad, we try to provide all the information needed, so the operator can do is his duty. Here you'll see the town name Augusta written out in large lettering. You'll also see the tracks are clearly labeled. They're even labeled by hierarchy. In other words, the main lines are heavier line weight than are the sightings than are the industry tracks. We show the depot for reference so they can reference where they're at. We also clearly label each of the tracks. So if they're not able to read graphically what it is, they can read basically the English and get the information. We show major industries, such as the Texaco refinery here, and all of its spots so they can spot equipment off the car cards and weigh bills. Finally, and lastly, on the panel, along the top we've provided a graphical design, which basically shows the town names east and west of Augusta. That way the operator here in town can quickly reference as of to where his car goes, east or west, when he places it a train. A lot of people build a railroad and the people are secondary. A lot of people create a model railroad and people that come in to run the railroad is for them to enjoy their railroad. I'm kind of the opposite. I build a railroad to entertain people. And again, like we mentioned earlier, it's kind of a chess game for 10 people, and it's neat to see people solve problems. It's neat to see them get frustrated. You know, it's neat to see the dispatcher go off on somebody, you know, and those things are great. It's fun. And it's wonderful. It's very enjoyable to see people interact. How many switch motors do you have on this layout? I have no idea. Okay. There's a whole bunch. These are the stall motors. Uh huh, I use two types obviously. I use the older Hanks craft type which I was able to buy in bulk through All Electronics in Southern California. Periodically they get them in. And I think I paid a dollar a piece for them and I ordered a whole, whole bunch of them. However, one of the problems I ran into is they don't have external contacts. And so I ended up putting a lot of the tortoises in for my main line turnouts where I need external contacts to tell us the CDC panel how the turnout was aligned.