A friend of mine asked me one time if I could design and build a better control panel for his N-scale layout. He actually had a handful of panels that needed to be revamped. I had been experimenting with various designs, printing issues, and construction methods. After a while I developed a system with which I could reproduce consistent results. This is important if you want to have a set of identical-looking panels for one layout.

After some experience under my belt, at one point during 2004-5, I designed, built, and sold these under my, then, company name "MiniatureScapes™". With no money for advertising, I still managed to get a few very happy clients. The panels are time-consuming to make, but the results, I think, are worth it.

The colors and designs are completely customizable, and the sizes are typically fit to existing benchwork. Space for buttons, switches, and LEDs can all be provided. This first photo is of one such panel made for a client. All the discussions and design decisions were entirely done via e-mail. This panel has indicators for insulated track gaps, main lines (red) and secondary lines (blue), names of industries, and pre-drilled holes for the switches.



The design is created within a graphics software application in very high resolution to avoid jagged lines. The design needs to take into account the size and location of switches and panel lights. It is then printed on very high quality paper matched for the printer. I glue the paper to a piece of 1/8"-thick Masonite (typically), aligning one edge. The other edges will be cut and trimmed to fit the paper later on. An experimental panel is shown in the next photo for a large N-scale diorama I started but never finished. It was printed on some basic, thick paper, which proved to not be a good solution.



For the afore-mentioned N-scale layout, I used existing panels to develop the design for the new panel (before and after shown in the next two photos).



Because of the high gloss, the room's lighting was reflected on the panel. After the paper has been glued to the Masonite board (plexiglass could be used as well, although I never got a chance to try that), I cover the panel with Envirotex. This is the same material we typically use in our layouts to model water. The panel has to be perfectly level, and it needs to rest in a place that is relatively dust- and hair-free. This proved to be a big challenge having birds, cats, and a dog in the house. Drying time is typically one or two days. During that time it cannot be disturbed. The Envirotex has to be worked for a period of time after the pouring to make sure all air bubbles are removed. This is very delicate work, and very stressful.



The whole construction process takes about a week (not including design time). Next up is the drilling of the holes for switches and lights. I pre-drill the holes with a small drill bit, and then gradually work up to the desired size. I do the work on a drillpress to make sure the holes are perpendicular to the panel. This is important because the small switches we use are just barely big enough for the 1/8" thick Masonite. One creative idea I received that I never implemented was to glue LEDs into the panel before the pouring of the Envirotex. The idea is that the LED will then be embedded in the panel. You can do that with LEDs because they have an almost infinite life-span. Incandescent lightbulbs need to be replaced from time to time. Here's a photo of the panel installed on the N-scale layout. This layout used snap turnout controllers, so the momentary push buttons were installed in the panel to match the direction the turnout is to be thrown. It makes the panel very intuitive. The black switches are the main or straight alignment, whereas the red switches are for the divergent track.



One more... This panel was built for the layout's large yard. It shows that by keeping the same colors throughout the panels (same fonts, etc.) you can build a theme for the layout. It is my understanding that when this layout was dismantled, a regular operator took this yard portion and is happily using it and this panel is his own layout. The space set aside for the old panel in this spot exceeded the width of my printer (greater than 19 inches), so the control panel was glued to a larger sheet of Masonite hardboard to fit the space. However, because of the new thickness where the switches were, more work needed to be done to clear a space for each of the switches.