Our club consists of about 20 members who are unfamiliar with interfacing computers with signaling, a dispatcher panel, turnout machine control, a single-track layout with passing sidings and operations on a large 50’ x 60’ layout which is in the planning stage at present. (The layout room is an empty space in an existing building.) Can someone suggest the best places for obtaining information necessary to combine these elements?
Virgil Young
You will need hardware and software. Hardware is available from a few sources, but perhaps the best known is Bruce Chubb’s CMRI system.
http://www.jlcenterprises.net/index.htm
CTI is a relative newcommer, but worth a look.
http://www.cti-electronics.com/index.htm
Software will have to be customized for your track plan. There are a lot more options for software available, some for sale, and some freeware.
JMRI is modular freeware, which supports DCC and CMRI.
KAM Industries has control programs for sale which also support DCC and CMRI. They have a construction program which allows you to describe your trackplan and assign detectors, signals, turnouts, etc.
take a look at this web site, it is the most comprehensive I have found.