15/01/08: I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas

Progress has been slow, not to mention in completely the wrong direction! A rogue dishwasher flooded the downstairs of our house and among the consequences was the complete stripping out of the kitchen and emptying of the living room. Much stuff got dumped in the garage/railway room which not only meant that things were inaccesable for the best part of three months. In addition whilst the builders were trying to squeeze yet more odds and ends into the already crowded garage some things got damaged, including LS18 5237 which was partially crushed. See if you can spot it in the picture below....

Ah well, now that I can get back in work has started on the control panel for the scenic section roadways. Switches have been installed for the road hunctions. They are single-pole double-throw centre-off examples giving ON (Branch) - OFF (Main) - AUTO (Computer Control) options for each junction. The computer control doesn't exist yet but is intended to be a MERG RPC system which will interface to a PC using an RS-232 serial link. The manual over-ride will allow me to operate the layout on occasions when I just want to test something or the computer is sulking. Each of the baseboards, except the end two, has a 25-way D-socket for the various connections to the control panel which has a corresponding 25-way D-plug. Work is underway on the control panel and wiring on the baseboards.

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