CTC Machine of the Model Railroad Club of New Jersey

Pete Ezzard is the Trenton Northern dispatcher of the Model Railroad Club. In this video he demonstrates how to route a train from Northampton to the center track in Trenton Station, following the track schematic on their CTC board.

To begin routing the train between Northampton and Trenton, he must throw certain switches in order to make sure that the train is properly aligned. The first switch that he has to throw is the junction. The white light shows him that the switch is about to be activated at that junction.

The red light tells him that the command is about to be entered. When it is solid red, it means the train is aligned properly through the junction switch. The other switches that he has to throw are at Beth Allen Street and West Trent. The Beth switch is blinking which shows that the command is about to be activated and when he hits the enter button, the light becomes solid red. You can hear the switch turning and the train should be now aligned.

After all the switches are aligned, the next to last step is to select the power routing for the train, and punch it in all the way between Northampton and Trenton Station to the track where the train will be arriving. The final step of the process is to give the train orders. He is in communication with the train crew and gives his order.

The yellow light gives him positive track indication of position of the train at all times. You can see that lights go on and off depending on which track section it is in at any particular time. Next Michael Hauptmann dispatches the Hudson Delaware and Ohio. To see Pete dispatch or learn more about controlling your layout with a CTC machine visit the Model Railroad Academy website.