The electrical switches you see most often on model railroads are toggles. It's no wonder, they do the job, they are easy to understand and connect, and they give a visual indication of layout status. However, some functions can be performed better with push button switches, particularly if you wish to control a function from two locations. The downside of pushbuttons is they can seldom do the job alone. They usually require an indicator light, and remote operation implies some sort of circuit that is being operated.

There have been several discussions here about enhancing locomotive sound by connecting a duplicate decoder to either headphones or a sound system in the layout room. rtw3rd, aka Rick, mentioned he wanted to connect several decoders to a switch so he would have a choice of locos. I of course shot off my mouth, suggesting he use a mixer instead, so he could run more than one loco at once.

The simple crossing signal circuit was designed to be operated by a manual switch, but it's fairly easy to automate it. This thread will start with a basic two detector version but eventually I hope to present a way to add as many detectors as you like and a time delay circuit to let trains clear before releasing the crossing. This circuit depends on ambient light to operate, but the level needed to trigger it is adjustable.

This is the schematic:

As I mentioned in my Building Simple Circuits thread, putting electronics together is an underappreciated part of model railroading. This note is another in my series of attempts to spread knowledge of this surprisingly simple skill. This will show how to work with an integrated circuit and an easy technique to go from a working breadboard to a permanent module.

One of the joys of model railroading is it provides the opportunity and motivation to learn new skills. One skill many avoid though, is building electronic circuits. I admit circuit building is intimidating, and not terribly necessary since so much is available RTR, but it is particularly satisfying to turn on the power and see things light up (most DIY circuits involve lights) knowing you put that part together from scratch.

I bought this kit from M.B. Klein:

I thought I would try it as the originating station for excursions on the Little Trees and Surfside. The listed dimensions were a tad big for the place it has to fit, but I figured if I left off the platform (which for some reason seems to be on the back of the station) it would work. This is the chronicle of what I had to do to make it so.

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