Extra 4104 East passes the Cominco Lime- stone tipple at Fife (page 58) on the au- thor’s Columbia & Western N scale layout. The crew has work to do here before pro- ceeding on to Farron summit. This view of Farron Summit (above) shows the typical fascia-side panel and equipment for a C&W train order station. The wireless phone to the dispatcher is on the left, instructions for its use are center, and the panel with the signal repeater status and acknowledge button are on the right. Crews can find their written train orders and clearances in a pigeon hole board (right). Slots are pro- vided for west or eastbound trains at each train order station, and for terminal loca- tions for trains which originate off layout. The board hangs from the upper level deck at the entrance to the layout.
the ability to address individual hand- sets by their alphanumeric train order station call sign, variable ringer vol- ume, and a flashing, scrolling display which improves the user interface. The downside of using the intercom system is that to call the dispatcher a crew needs three button presses–two to en- ter intercom mode and then one to se- lect the dispatcher–and that only two handsets can talk to each other at a time, i.e. no “party line” mode. The sig- nificant benefits are cost, simplicity
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
and ease of installation. The entire phone system was installed in less than an hour. My dispatchers might also say that the lack of a party line is a benefit as they can, and do, leave their handsets “off the hook” to give those annoying crews a busy signal while they complete paperwork.
As I have mentioned, the dispatcher is located in a room adjacent to the lay- out, however, when the layout is run- ning there are two swing gates across the entrance to the room so the dis- patcher unfortunately can’t quickly walk into the room to pass orders to a crew or clip them to the fascia at the rel-
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