It's been a long time since updates, so I'll toss in a few items. Spring(ish) since here in the Midwest we just finished up 5" of snow last weekend, in mid-April! And now it's raining. Like, almost every day. Sigh...
Flooring:
Anyway, a number of updates to the layout Over the holidays I added rubber floor tiles, which make working and standing a lot more comfy. Extra bonus is the floor is warmer in the winter time. The tiles I purchased are these;
and I got a dark brown color.
A small tip - I found static electrictity a minor issue during the winter after putting the floor in; that was solved by advice from a friend... get some liquid fabric softener which has anti-static included, thin it down 2-1 with water, and just spray the floor. Problem solved!
Phones:
And, to make communication better I added a small phone system. It took a bit of research, but - again with help and advice from other operators in this area - I found this PABX system, and added a few simple one-line phones.
This had made a huge different, primarily in helping operators coming into and leaving Ridgway, since Vance Junction (next town on the line) is on the opposite side of the basement with a couple small rooms in between.
Here's the control unit (wiring here isn't quite finished...). It just needs power (supplied with the unit), and then I ran a couple CAT5 lines from here to the various phones. You could use any twisted-pair wiring; it's not critical since this is just basic audio signal (no high-speed networking or anything).
If you're looking for how to determine phone wiring, and the colors to use, here's a couple great pages that helped me:
There's some simple programming involved, which let me give each of my 5 phones a one-digit number, so calling between phones is really simple. I even ran a connection into the home landline phone, so I can either pick up or dial out using the regular phone as well (by adding a prefix).
Then it was time to actually install all the phones. I located one in the laundry room, which might someday serve as a dispatcher desk. Then, one at Ridgway, Vance Jct, Dolores and Durango.
Dispatcher phone:
Dolores phone:
Durango yard phone (works for Rico as well):
Vance Jct phone:
As you can see, I also labeled the phones with the other extension numbers, and how to pick up / dial out on the house phone if needed. In the above photo, the label you're seeing was printed on sticky shipping labels, but they didn't adhere well.
After a little more research, I replaced them with some custom-printed vinyl labels, which worked great. I had no idea it was so easy to have these created -pre-cut to the size I wanted, and printed with any text or image I liked. I used this place for that; very low cost too!
Here are links to the phone system, and the phones -
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