I finally got all the wiring and switches hooked up on my CTC style box control center:
The 6 top switches control the 6 turnouts on the layout.
The 8 on/off toggle switches control various layout features, such as building lights, neon lights, crossing gates, and even an air raid siren. I’m probably going to put old style label maker labels under these toggles.
And the 2 switches on the right control an order board signal.
Oops, just realized I still have some small screws to install on the turnout and order board switch panels [:$]
Matt, Nice job on the control panel, very neat. The rotary phone and air raid siren fit your layout era.
As a kid I remember the “Duck and cover” drills at school, being volunteered to hand out Civil Defense air raid booklets door to door, cereal box free inside Nike missle launchers and a neighbor building a bomb shelter in his garage.
I’ll be sorry if the “big one” ever gets dropped, but I find a model railroad megatons more fun to have in a garage than a bomb shelter.
Which switches did you use with the Rix knobs? The ones specified are obsolete, and the replacements referred to by Mouser are a non-stock item, you cna order them, but in minimum quantities of 1000! Even my double deck basement layout will not need anywhere near 1000 turnout knobs.
I looked on Mouser web site, the specified part # from Rix turns up a substitute that is like a 10 or more position switch. Surfed over to Allelectroics.com, they appear to have a three position rotary with he proper sized D shaft. Just go to their search box and enter 3 position rotary switch.
I believe I found the proper replacement switch, the problem is that Mouser doesn;t have all the fields necessarily filled out so when you filter for what you want - the 2 position switch should have 60 degrees between positions, and the 3 position one should be 30 degrees, at least for actual USS CTC machine plates - CTC Parts has metal versions of the Rix plastic ones, and brass levers, too - MUCH more expensive, but they are metal. Anyway, The switches I found match the original ones, the data sheets look exactly the same except that the Alpha part number has changed to indicate the new ones are ROHS compliant. All specs are exactly the same as the part number given by Rix. And unlike many I have been finding (even on ebay) that are $10 to $15 per switch, these are $2.77 in quantities of 1. Mouser 105-SR2511F-43RN appears to be the right one for the signal lever (3 position) and 105-SR2511F-62RN appears to be the 2 position (turnout lever) one.
Randy, thanks for the information re: rotary switches. I was not even thinking about how many degrees throw would be necessary to match the switch plate. I think this set up will make for a very attractive panel that will work as good as it looks.
