Undercover and black things happening!

Let me explain...

BLACK
We have now painted a plinth for the laptop and monitors black, inside and out.  It is the scenic break from the fiddle yard off scene to both the Pen Mill line to Yeovil Town and Yeovil Junction to Yeovil Town.  Constructed of plywood and softwood for strength it starts what is intended to be a large undercover section of the layout, enabling the computer control equipment to be accommodated and also some literature about Yeovil Town and the project to be displayed to the public.

UNDERCOVER

The Control desk has been lifted away from its power module base and the Lenz PSU, Expressnet panel and the main DCC unit located inside.  This will enable us to next fit the Lenz RS bus (RS485) around the layout.  This bus joins up the feedback modules located throughout and will enable us to operate the layout in full automatic mode or partial automatic mode when required.  Once we have fitted the feedback modules (mostly block occupancy) we can add the Lenz PC interface and feed a second DCC system into the laptop to work with Train Controller Gold.

Why the two systems?  Simple, the ZTC (in my opinion) is the best control desk available but currently lacks feedback modules in the range.  The Lenz system is great for feedback but has archaic controls for DCC so I have mixed them both.