Point control
Hi Tim, In the thread about DCC Handheld Quality http://germanrail.8.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1988 you mention that you used to use Peco electric pencil and rivets Why do you use a pencil and rivits rather than push button switches? As an aside are you changing points individually or by route control? Cheers John

Why? Electric pencil and rivets require less wiring- just the feed to the pencil and the wiring from the rivet to each solenoid. A push-button switch needs a pair of wires to each switch for feed/return another issue is that during the rough and tumble of transit, push-buttons tend to snag and snap, rivets are rather tough. The electric pencil method lends itself to a discrete graphic mimic board whereas push-buttons are much bigger. Unfortunately, No route control, I merely move the pencil along the line of rivets and watch the turnouts change. There is no feedback from the turnout motor so I rely on memory and eyesight to know the position of the turnouts. If I was using more sophisticated turnout motors, I would use their extra contacts to provide me with some feedback via embedded lights so that my mimic board had a graphic display of the route. Lots of variations on a theme and it is really up to you as to what suits you. Pottendorf was a small but potentially confusing layout due to the intense nature of exhibition running and movement across the routes. However all operators found the simple mimic board very easy to comprehend and the use of colour-coded controllers with colour-coded section switches was a doddle.

It seems to me that the technical level of Tim's approach is in almost perfect accord with his prototype.