Looking for anyone with photos of how they have their control panel set up. I am thinking of a pull out drawer set up or something to house my Digitrax Zephyr system and future throttles, also something that I might be able to incorporate a test track into, if possible. Thanks for any help and Ideas you can give me. My switches are all manually controlled and will not be involved in the design of the control panel.
You might look into getting an under-table computer keyboard unit. These have a lot of adjustments for angle and position, and are designed to mount underneath and push back in when not in use.
Bundle all your wires into a master cable, and tie it together with cable ties. Get a few big cup hooks, fasten them beneath your layout and loop the cable over them. This will let the cable move freely while keeping it out of the way, and you can stll easily remove it if necessary.
I built a shaelf under my layout to hold my power supplies, booster, and circuit breaker. It’s simply 2 U shaped hangers mounted to the bottom of the framework and a piece of premade shelf material that slides in. It won;t fall out by itself, but I can slide it to one side and set it all down on the floor for easy access if needed.
My Zephyr is the command station, and I will be making a small shelf on the end of the cement plant section to hold it so that i can be used as a throttle for someone workign the plent, but I generally use one of my DT throttles when runnign trains, not the Zephyr console. I haven’t decided it I want to have a program track on the layout or not - I have a seperate test and programming track that’s hooked to my PR3. I may run a section of track above the Zephyr on the end of the layout, but that would be only 2’ long. It’s enough to set a loco on and program it though.
–Randy
Something kinda like this?
I use CVPs EasyDCC…I mounted the command station on my main control panel:
Everything else is mounted on a shelf under the panel:
Nick