I have had a couple of weeks sorting out a few problems on the layout. I have had some difficulty with the long crossover to the storage sidings which had decided to get themselves out of gauge a bit. Add to that a couple of other electrical problems and all in all it has taken a while to fix.

Of course getting it all sorted meant running a few trains to test it all. Which led me to improve the traverser control panel a bit. I haven’t really mentioned the traverser much, its not the most elegant of things and in some ways it is a compromise to make the space useable. The six tracks on it are automatically switched to the up and down cabs when the traverser is aligned and locked. For the purposes of running round and forming trains there was a local cab switched in from the control panel. Thing is, having prepared a train I would go back to the railway room, pick up the respective cab controller and then look bemused when nothing happened.

Yep, I was always forgetting to switch back from the traverser cab to the main cabs.

So I replaced the switch with a simple timer. Press the button gives traverser cab control. 5 leds light and go out one by one as it counts down over about a minute. if you want more time press the button and it returns to the start of the countdown.

A couple of pics

The circuit diagram.

Might be useful for other things, feel free to play about with the idea.