CTC boards

I dunno about "How To's" (check out MR's magazine index), but for knobs and plates, you can get them from Walthers by Rix:

These are 100% gray plastic that much be painted and decaled, but they look good. You also have to buy rotary switches from Radio Shack or elsewhere to get them to work.

Paul A. Cutler III

************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************

Try Control Train Components at

================================ Matthew Latham

That looks like an excellent source of parts for the mechanical stuff on the board. I did one years ago well before any of this stuff was available and had to make all of the backing plates myself. That was a lot of etching work! The workings in the back were CMOS logic which took the track detection (I used Twin-T type detectors) and turnout positions and determined by simple logic whether the path was available to the next signal. The operator pushed a button to enable the route and the appropiate signals went green on the board and the numerous operator panels about the layout. Turnouts were thrown from the panel and showed their direction with the lights on the panel. All power to the circuitry was 12V so 12V lamps were used everywhere. The CMOS logic drove MOSFETs to light the lamps for the signalling. When the train ran onto the block, the signlas went back to red as the track detection detected them and told the logic that there was something on that track. The path enabling button merely put one input into the logic which fed back to itself to hold the green indication in a simple flip-flop setup. I don't know if there are any schematics on how to do the basic circuit but it can get to be a bit complex due to the number of routes that can be selected but if you just sit down and look at all of the paths and make a circuit for each of them, locking at the turnout directions, you will be able to do the job. I took a notebook and made a page for each signal and wrote down what paths were available and what trackage needed to be checked for when allowing the signal to go green and it all really became simple in how it goes together. The complexity is in the sheer quantity of the simple logic needed to do the job with the many signals that you will have. Don't forget to make sure that the track between signals (containing the turnouts themselves) is also detected or you will be routing trains into other trains. I also locked out any turnouts from actuating when something was sitting on those little sections of track There was a lot of electronics there but once it got together, the whole thing became a real standout on that layout. Good luck and buy a good soldering iron as you will be needing it!

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Dunno, but I've wanted to make one out of this stuff:

and dark smoke gray plastic for a couple of years.

I've got sheets and sheets of the plastic that I picked up at a garage sale.

A special thanks to all that responded and for the links. I've shared them with a few other guys in the area. The old photos of the C & O Hinton board were of great interest to the guys working on Lou Shultz's C&O.

Don't forget to try and write an article set about how you did your CTC board. The logic for the board is also a good thing to write about as there really isn't much on the subject.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?