Our list of opening dates for the first part of 2019 is now available!

The panel is visible (through a glass wall) on ALL days that the Railway Centre is open. The dates listed in the link above are those on which the panel room will be open to visitors, operated and everyone can have a go.

We look forward to seeing you at the panel!

Just like buses…… Some further additional dates have been added when Swindon Panel will be open and in operation, for everyone to visit and ‘have a go’ under the instruction of our demonstrators!

Sat 11 November
Sun 17 November
Sat 8 December
Sat 15 December

SPS Members – If you’re free to volunteer on any of these dates then please let us know or ‘click to volunteer’ on the roster. All of these have training/induction potential so, if you’re waiting for a training day and can make any of these dates then please let us know or ‘click to volunteer’ on the roster.

Thank you to everyone for their input into these extra dates, we’ll now be open one weekend day every weekend from the end of October until Christmas which is a fantastic achievement!

A great first training session was held last weekend and we are starting, thank you very much to our first group of demonstrators! Much positive feedback has been received, which is excellent, as well as a lot of ideas, suggestions and feedback for future improvement, all of which will be mulled over and implemented where appropriate.

The development of the panel exhibit is marching on as it has been doing behind the scenes for several years now – I am pleased to say that some furniture has been ordered for the panel room today, including some metal locker cupboards that will go on the back wall under the number plates to store leaflets, merchandise, tuck shop, etc and also display items and merchandise on top. Also on the way is a metal and glass display case which is destined for the small wall on the left as you enter the panel room, which will display items of MAS signalling interest such as relays, ATP components, pilotman’s armband, Annett’s lock, SPRS instrument and key, etc, etc.

An operating day on 24 NOVEMBER has been added, which has induction/training day potential. Please feel free to ‘click to volunteer’ on the roster, or let me know by reply if you are available for that day.

(Preference on that day will be given to those wishing to do induction training.)

November Roster (password required)

There are several other operating days in the roster now, with many opportunities to volunteer, so please feel free to do so (for dates after your induction/training day).

If you are still waiting for an training day, and 24 November isn’t convenient, please continue to watch this space!

Many thanks indeed

Danny Scroggins

Swindon Panel Days will be held on September 1, 22, 23, 29, 30. These are for demonstrating the panel to public visitors, and for training demonstrators in how to do so.

We will contact members who have already expressed an interest in demonstrating the panel, but if you want to beat the queue, please contact Danny or Jamie to book in to one or more dates.

Training will consist of how to switch the system on and off, how to operate the panel, and (most importantly of all!) how to interact with public visitors. Training will be led by one of the central SP team, and each member can take as long or as little training as needed. When both you and we are happy, you’ll become qualified as a Swindon Panel ‘demonstrator’ to demonstrate the panel, or (again, only if you and we are happy) a ‘Person in Charge’. There is always a person in charge on duty when we are open and that person co-ordinates the ‘demonstrators’.

Please note that, to ensure quality training, only those members who are ‘booked in’ will be operating the panel all day and receiving ‘official’ training. However, these days are open to public visitors and anyone can ‘drop in’ at any time.

[Photo by Frank Dumbleton]

The end of a long several weeks and months for SPS volunteers involved in finalising the panel’s electronics and simulator made some satisfying visual steps forward this weekend, when debugging of wiring and software glitches took place on the east end of the panel.

Although not all bugs have been fixed, a great many have, and the east end of the panel now looks ‘believable’.

Both ends of the panel have worked with the ‘outside world simulator’ independently, and a huge amount of very frustrating computing and programming work has taken place to bring the two ends together to work seamlessly with each other. Very soon we will reach the stage of restoration when a pretend train can travel from one end of the panel to the other!

All this recent work has used a lot of resources – especially computer components. We have been using parts of our collection of a great many donated computers and peripheral equipment, some of which is useful on its own and some has been a useful source of spares. There are some items which we will soon need to purchase, and these can be found on our Amazon Wish List if any supporters are feeling generous! (Thanks everyone for your generosity! The wishlist is now closed). They aren’t very glamorous (mice, extension leads, etc), but they are all required to complete the work.

While the last year has seen a lot of progress, not much has been visual. The next few months will see rapid visual progress, both for the panel and the building. The panel will move into its final position in the early spring, the ceiling and flooring will be completed, and a lot of the tools and equipment in the panel room will move elsewhere (probably upstairs into the loft).

Once the panel is in a working state we will resurrect the list of volunteers interested in demonstrating the panel and holding some training sessions for this. We also hope to hold some Members’ Days in the lead-up to or shortly after the grand opening.

Thank you very much to everyone who has slogged through the last year – especially the solderers! – it has been a long job but we are now going to see the fruits of our labour in a working panel!

Well done to everyone who has been involved in progress at Didcot over the last several months.

A great deal of time and effort has gone into soldering the thousands of connections to tags in the back of the panel – a seemingly never-ending fiddly task that made us glad we hadn’t tried to preserve anything bigger than Swindon!

The west of the panel is pretty comprehensively debugged and has been fully working (to the extent to which the software is programmed).

The east end is not fully debugged yet, as software progress is not as advanced on this end of the panel and it is more difficult to debug the hardware before the software performs reliably.

The volume of computer hardware in the panel has increased significantly over the last few months, with a computer required for each of the east end of the panel, west end of the panel, ‘outside world’ simulator, and train describer. Our collection of second-hand computers has been worked hard, and some patch-and-mend has been required in the short term. Once the final computer requirements are established we will install some decent hardware, but there is little point in doing this until the final requirements are known.

Integrating the hardware and the software has been challenging, especially as we are using the software for an installation far far bigger than anything envisaged when the software was designed (for model railways). Some hurdles have also been encountered because we have written our own code for the program in addition to using code written using the program interface, which has occasionally caught us out when newer versions of the program have been released by the makers.

The completion of the panel simulator is comparable to filling up a swimming pool – in that it fills up widely and slowly until one day it all reaches 100% full. We are at the stage of everything being 95% complete, and everything having been seem to work independently, and all the integration concepts having been proved, and it is now a case of ironing out all the snagging issues of making it all work together!

The original VDUs in the panel have been made to work (which was more tricky than it sounds!) and connected to the TD computer. This emulates the Vaughan Harmon train describer, which Swindon had for approximately its last 20 years. Previous to this there was an LED train describer and previous to that a Sodeco mechanical describer. We also have components available of both of these other types of describer, which we plan to recommission in the future on at least part of the panel.

The work is currently slow, sometimes frustrating, and doesn’t show such as visible progress as our earlier work, however, we will very soon complete this stage and move on to more detailed testing of the panel. Completion of the panel room ceiling is now imminent and very quickly the room will start to come together.

We hope, soon to be able to advertise some members’ days in the leadup to the grand opening in June.

Don’t forget, SPS will be at Warley Show, Birmingham NEC, 25th & 26th November 2017

We have arranged to have an information stand at this very large model railway exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.

Of course we’ll need people to staff the stand. No specialist skills are required, simply enthusiasm for your subject!

There will be ample opportunity to look around at the other exhibits, you won’t be chained to the stand!

Further information about the show here:
https://www.thewarleyshow.co.uk/

If you’re interested in helping please contact us via the usual channels.

Thank you,
Tim Miller

A date in Swindon Panel’s exciting and sometimes unbelievable journey to preservation that you won’t want to miss!

The grand opening of the new signalling building at Didcot Railway Centre, including the ceremonial opening of Swindon Panel, will take place on 23 June 2018.

We are delighted to confirm that the opening ceremony will be officiated by Francis How, Chief Executive of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers!

The ceremony will also be accompanied by other special attractions and visitors…. watch this space!

£152.60 has been raised for Swindon Panel in the last few months via EasyFundraising! Well done everyone!

When supporters shop at one of over 3000 online stores, those stores donate money to Swindon Panel, without costing the shopper any more. If you aren’t registered yet, please consider doing so, and using this special link will attract an extra £1 donation for SPS, without costing you anything extra, or, in fact, anything at all!

There are even browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, etc, that automatically recognise you’re a supporter so you don’t have to remember to log in before shopping.

As part of our great effort to have a small part of the panel working in time for the Friends’ Day on 11 March, an extra working day has been arranged for this Thursday 16 February – all help welcome, and James will bring biscuits!