Control Panel Help

I am ready to design and build a control panel for my HO Scale layout. Since I am using EZ-Track, the switches are all solenoid type, so I plan to use mini-toggle momentary switches to control the switches. What I would like to do is have an indicator light on the control panel to indicate whether the main track or the divergent track is selected. Would greatly appreciate some guidance from those who have done this.

i just finished my control panel. theirs probably a couple of ways to do it, but heres how i did it. first off the problem with solenoid throw switches as you probably know is that they can not take a constant power source, thats where the momentary switches come into play. because they cant take constant power you are going to have to use two switches per turnout, 1 momentary double throw switch for the turnout and 1 non-momentary double throw switch for the l.e.d indicator. I like to use a seperate power source for the l.e.d.s just be sure to use the right size resistors for the l.e.d.s. As for how to wire the l.e.d.s you cant find good sources online and theres even a calculator for figuring out the right ohm resistor that you will need.

There are no good solutions to this problem. You are talking about twin coil switch machines, rather than Tortoises? The better grades of twin coil machine have auxiliary contacts, one of which is closed when the turnout is lined for the straight thru route and another of which is closed when the turnout is set to the diverging route. Apply lamp power to one side of the two sets of contacts and bring two wires back to the control panel lamps. The closed contact will illuminate and the open contact stays dark. It will take some fiddling around before you get the right lamp to illuminate. Figure something will be backwards and the indicators will indicate in reverse the first time you power up. Flip wires back and forth until you have it right.

The lowest grade of twin coil machine, the Atlas, lacks auxiliary contracts. Atlas sells a “Snap Relay” which is a second twin coil machine that closes switch contacts instead of moving the turnout. You wire the Snap Relay in parallel with the Atlas switch machine and then wire the contacts like you would auxiliary contacts on a premium switch machine. This works but the Snap relays cost as much as an Atlas switch machine.

If you are going with twin coil switch machines, you could build a capacitor discharge power supply to throw the turnouts. This will prolong the life of the momentary contact toggle switches. The coils in a twin coil machine draw a lot of current (amps) and are very inductive. When the toggle switch opens to shut off the coil current, the inductance pulls a big fat arc across the switch contacts. The low grade toggles you get from Radio Shack can only take so much of this and then they weld themselves shut. Which leaves the juice on the coil until the coil pops.

A capacitor discharge power supply has a big capacitor charged up. When the toggle is closed, the capacitor di