We’re off to Milton Keynes!
See you at the Great Electric Train Show this weekend.
We’re not trading as we have an excellent website for product purchases, rather operating and documenting the transformation of Pete Watermans:
- Making Tracks I
- Making Tracks II
- Making Tracks III
… into a colossal 150 foot (50 meter) long layout.
So what are the challenges for us?
- It’s never been assembled before due to its size.
- The electronics, CAN bus and associated boards have never been put together before.
- We’ve never joined the tracks before.
In a nutshell, it’s never been tested. It looks like we’ve set ourselves up for failure.
The beauty of the Making Tracks layouts as seen at Chester Cathedral is that they were freshly built for the venue. Each was a one off build never to be seen again.
So why discard all that work when we can have in Pete’s own words “The Big Challenge”. After all, you need to keep pushing the boundaries to keep it fresh.
So what can you expect from this layout?
Well, if you stand at one end operating the trains, you’ll not be able to see them in the distance. I guess we will have to just figure this out as we go along.
We should have the UK Departure Boards up and running. These are driven by the System2 RFID readers. As trains leave the fiddle yard you’ll see (and hear) their route and platform announced before they arrive.
We have two bidirectional platforms, so keep an eye out for trains arriving from either direction. The platform access controlled by an electronic token on the System2 bus.
The fiddle yard is three times longer so I’m hoping we’ll be better placed to keep trains moving as we’ll not be so preoccupied with fiddle yard space management. We plan to run a train every 75 feet.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ill be there (in a bright Hawaiian shirt). If you see me and I’m not operating stop me for a chat. If I am operating, just shout louder 🙂
Of course, ill be filming the whole event, so look for videos from next week when I return.
I’m sure you’ll get all the usual action from the Railnuts including Pete barking orders, Dave speaking his mind (and putting the world rite!), Phil burying his head in his hands to avoid hassle and Pete, AKA The FAT Controller in a corner barking orders at us all.
It’s just like a regular family day on the rails!
Come see us, talk to us, witness the carnage, chaos and exhilaration as we run trains around 4 x 350 feet loops.
Welcome to the home of MegaPoints Controllers, British manufacturers of model railway layout control systems. On this site you’ll find videos, downloadable user guides and documentation, examples of our custom made mimic panels and our web shop.
If you’re stuck trying to find the latest user guide or video to help with your purchase it’s simple. Go to the online shop, click on the product you’re looking for and you’ll be presented with the most current videos and user guides.
Not sure which products are right for you? Send us an email (info@megapointscontrollers.com) and we’ll do our best to help you. Be sure to include the turnout motor type you plan to use and any other relevant information. Be direct so we can answer as quickly as possible as our email volume is high.
Enjoy our website, videos and products!
Website maintenance every Wednesday around noon
You may experience a short (5 minutes) site outage as we routinely patch our server and perform housekeeping. Why Wednesdays? It’s the quietest time on our webserver. If course, if we notice heavy usage we’ll postpone the maintenance until it’s quieter in the afternoon.
If you are inquiring about our products and would like some guidance for you model railway let us know the following so we can provide the most complete reply:
- How many turnouts do you have?
- Are you planning to expand the number of turnouts?
- What type of point motor do you have or are planning to install?
- Is your layout analogue or DCC controlled?
- How do you plan to control your layout:
- Via pushbuttons mounted on a mimic panel?
- Via DCC command using DCC accessory control?
- Both?
- Manually wired using toggle switches?
- Are you planning to use live frogs?
- What are the approximate dimensions of the baseboard?
- What is your timescale to get started or progress so far.
Email your inquiry to info@megapointscontrollers.com
Pete Watermans West Coast Main Line in OO gauge
Attracting over 25,000 visitors to Chester Cathedral over the summer break this layout will be displayed at the Great Electric Train Show, Milton Keynes 02-OCT-2021 after which it will be mothballed.
Pete Watermans West Coast Mainline
This OO gauge layout is longer than 70 feet and uses three mimic panels driving servo operated points. We designed colour light controllers in conjunction with Pete Waterman to give him exactly what he needed to bring the layout to life. These feature fully automatic operation and are linked together to provide prototypical signalling.
They are also capable of automatically stopping trains when set to danger and have feather signalling and diverging route four aspect signalling just like the real thing.
We’ll make a product announcement in August and list the controller on our web shop once we have sufficient stock.
Come see us at the exhibition in Chester Cathedral from July 16th.
Pete discussing how signals transformed the layout here.
Video of Pete Introducing the layout here.
Video explanation of the four aspect signals here.
Post COVID chip supply problems
After the COVID lockdowns many businesses are returning to discover the global supply chain logistics is not as robust as it once was. As an electronics manufacturer were being hit by a global shortage of computer chips. It seems there’s been a perfect storm and now the foundries that make chips (of which there are only a handful on the planet) are fully committed for the remainder of this year and next. This is leading to chip supply problems around the world and were not immune. Whilst we have stocks of chips and product, our suppliers are quoting lead times of 14 months or more for some devices.
I would expect that in 2022 there will be continuing product shortages across many industries from automotive to electric toothbrushes as stocks of integrated circuits are consumed.
Industry experts expect this to last into 2023.
We’re shipping from stock and in the event this changes you’ll see the item as backordered. Orders will ship strictly in date of order sequence as chip supplies filter through.
We’ll continue to post updates as the situation unfolds via our news section.
News
- Key Model World Live @ NEC
- S2 Mini Panel available
- Great Electric Train Show 2023
- System2 new product announcement
- System2 patches released
- System2 Starter Kit – Flexible driver board selection
- System2 MTB MP10 motor support
- Button panel extension cables in stock
- Our Blog
- Component sourcing still a challenge
- JMRI and MQTT supported with System2
- Coloured button caps available
How to navigate this site
Looking for the user guide or introduction video for a product you’ve just bought? Navigate to the shop, select your product and scroll down to the resources.
Have a question? Look in the FAQ (frequently asked questions). It’s probably already been asked and the answer will be found here along with advice and links to power supplies and servos.
We offer a bespoke mimic panel build service with fast turnaround times. See the Custom mimic panels section for details.
Our Exhibition Calendar lists our planned shows, come and meet us.
We have an extensive video library covering all versions of our products in the Videos library section.
All user documentation (if you know what you are looking for) may be found under the Documentation section.