change the design of the yards once operations got underway
years after construction had started.
Getting started with prototype operations
I started construction of my current layout in 1980 and wired
it for “progressive cab control.” Rather than using traditional
1a
Getting Real column - 2
control panels to assign blocks, progressive cab control uses
track detectors to automatically assign blocks based on loco-
motive direction and turnout positions.
Occasional informal operating sessions were run on the layout
under this control system but I was always limited to running no
more than two trains at a time. The system could be expanded
to accommodate
dozens of trains
at a time but I
never installed
the additional
circuit boards to
do that.
With only two
trains running at
a time, opera-
tions were lim-
ited to each
operator mak-
ing up a train at
one of the two
terminal yards,
and passing each
other some-
where in the
middle of their
runs.
In 1997, I
rewired the
layout for DCC
and installed
MRH-Jul 2013
