Frank,
What I've done is created thinner versions of the normal screen parts, but
many times I've used thin fillers between the normal parts to give a little
space for fingers and the diagram above the controls. What I've found is
that at high screen resolutions, it gets tricky to get the finger or mouse
to the right 'hot spot' to trigger the right actions. The direction selector
(left-center-right) is the hardest.
You said you had at least 55 turnouts. The standard panel station space is
65 pixels. So that would need a screen at least 3575 wide. They do exist
that big or even bigger, but that's still a lot. With two screens of 1920,
which equals 3840 that barely fits. Remember things like crossovers and
double track may require multiple directions to cover each track, it isn't
just how many turnouts.
I don't recall how many are on Mike Burgett's CTC (physical center and 2
wings) but that's about the most one person can handle.
Instead I'd have to ask if that is the count of all turnouts and are they
all remote controlled? Do they need to be all CTC controlled? I've found on
many layouts that a number of them can be removed from CTC. Their status is
still needed for the signals, but you don't need all of them being managed.
While you could use the template that has two rows across, that loses on not
being like the prototype ever did it. At least every example I've seen is
only one track diagram and one row for each of direction, turnout, code
button, and sometimes also lock, call light, etc... making it even taller.
-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.org
www.syracusemodelrr.org
Ken Cameron