switch alignment

[CAS]

A curious or dumb question.

Lets say i have plan to make a staging or holding yard for my layout. It will be hidden behind a divider, or in a tunnel.
I do not have walk around throttles yet, i will have a power pack mounted to my layout. I was thinking on the lines of push buttons for my control panel to control my turnouts.Will 1 of the buttons be a little depressed so i'll be able to tell? How do i know how my switches are aligned, straight or turned. Without visually seeing the turnout. Do i need to put lights on my control panels indicating which way they are turned. Or do i need to have a unobstructed view to be able to tell? And do a visual for each turnout?

Thanks,
Cliff

 

[Matthyro]

On a previous layout where I had a hidden staging yard, I had leds mounted on my control panel showing which direction the switches were set in. It was realtively easy to do as in those days I had cab control and needed control panels. You need the type of switch machines that have electrical connections to do this. It could also be done with manual push rods as they could be connected to a dpdt switch for the lighting.

 

[CAS]

Thankas Matthyro,

I didn't know if it was possible or not. Thanks again for your help.

Cliff

 

[60103]

There used to be push buttons advertised with indicator light and such. I haven't seen them for years.
Peco make little switches for switches that look like miniature signal cabin levers. They stay over in position.
If you use Tortoise machines, you have 2 indicators available. The DPDT switch ponts the way, and you can put LEDs in series with the machine to show it.
If you want feedback indicators (to show that the turnout has gone over all the way) you can wire bulbs to the track beyond the frog. These will only work when the track power is on, but they will tell you that the switch points have fully thrown and which way the switch is set as opposed to which button you pushed.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

What people have done in the past is use red/green leds. They can be wired to turn red when aligned for the curve and green when aligned for the straight, or vice versa. Just make them consistant. You can use one led for each turnout, and the color tells you which way it is lined up.