Friday, February 13, 2026

Love it when the tech works

 For the last few weeks I've been working on a window display layout for my local hobby shop,
Railway City Hobbies.
A local modeler who had remarkable talents in kitbashing industrial structures passed away and his daughter wished for an ongoing legacy of his skills. So a few of his structures were loaned so that they could be on display, (I'll be showing photos at a later date).

We determined which  structures could be incorporated into the space and a track plan was figured out.


 A simple switchback with 3 turnouts which would feature a short train and a couple of cars shuttling back and forth. The key to this was finding a control system to make this work.
Cue those fine folks at Iowa Scale Engineering and their Motorman control system. A bit of electronic wizardry that does exactly what we require for either DC or DCC equipped locomotives.
The auto-reverse is triggered by an under the track photo receptor, Trainspotter, which we also used to control the turnout motors, MP1
All in all a rather simple setup
I'd post a video, but it exceeds the file size allowed, take my word for it, the layout works exactly as desired
Now I can work on ground cover and other such things another couple of weeks it'll be in the store window

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely way to remember her father. And good on you for offering your skill and talents, Pierre. I hope to visit Ontario friends and family this Spring. When do you think the layout will be installed?

Pierre Oliver said...

If all goes well, the layout will be in the window in a couple of weeks from now.

George Dutka said...

Hi Pierre glad you are able to put Rick's models to use giving them a second life. Will have to stop by and see it when your complete. Have fun!