The Panel- Part 2

Work continues on the dispatcher's panel. The cabinet is just about finished and ready for paint. I still need to add pieces of Masonite to either end and fill in the screw holes.

All of the plugs have been added to the panel and the Masonite for the track occupancy diagram has been attached.

All that remains to do on the panel is add the 4-40 nuts and bolts to plug the small holes beneath each unused lever mounting position. Then its off to Randy Sieler's shop for a coat of olive green paint in a shade that will replicate what Union Switch & Signal used on their panels. Of course, there's a price for this service. And that price is a couple of hand-laid curved crossovers for the B&O/PC Cincinnati West Railroad.

And I've spent the last several weeks drawing up the electrical circuits for the various switches and levers. The diagram below shows the wiring for the turnout lever.

The diagram includes all of the electrical connections that will be needed along with the entries into the Signal By Spreadsheet software. Once Gerry Albers straightened me out on some of the nomenclature, i.e. active hi, active lo, etc. associated with his SBS product, the rest was relatively painless. And he also kindly reviewed each of the circuits. Without his help, I could have blown up all kinds of stuff and made clouds of smoke that would have been second in size and magnitude only to what Smokey Doll can create!