Walk-around controls

[boppa]

I think that some modellers saw a big control panel as a bit of a status symbol, too - the more lights and knobs and switches, the more impressive it looked. Of course, in those days, much of that hardware was necessary to make the layout function properly.
(snip)
Wayne

I remember the local club when I was a boy, they had (still have actually) a shed the size of a house with a single layout (ho). in it from memory it could let 12 different operaotrs run at once, each on their own dc controller and using block control

its points display and setting main board was bigger than my mums dining room table, with several other smaller repeater display only boards at various parts of the layout

I remember when they first went to walkaround (still using dc mind you)- each controller had a `faster' button and a `slower' button and a reverse/stop/forward switch
flash- they continued to use the old dc controllers they always had- but one of the locals made up a `contraption' using mechano brackets and gears and slotcar motors bolted to the controllers that were driven by relays by the pushbutons on the handheld walkarounds

wonder what ever happened to those old beasts- a pure work of art they were.... (when I moved back into the area years later after doing my appreticeship in the big smoke- they had gone dcc)

edit to add

and they had memory too!!- you could unplug the contoller and walk to another jack point and your loco kept running unless it hit a red.