So let me start out first by apologizing as I know this answer is out there but after a bit of a search I couldn’t find it and with 2 toddlers my hobby time is finite. I am finally building a layout in N scale which will be DCC. Just starting to lay track. When I left the hobby in the late 90’s DCC was not really a thing yet so I am still learning.
My issue/question is on my New Haven Railroad Providence RI layout that I will have a double track main…north and south. The plan has a few crossovers, some double some single. Do I need to use auto reversers to correctly wire these to prevent shorts? The frogs are all plastic as I am using code 80 turnouts and Kato double crossovers. If AR’s is the answer and I have a north bound train and send a South bound onto a northbound track what will happen to the northbound train? Do I need to use power blocks or districts to address this? Pardon my dcc ignorance…i am a novice as I said. Thank you. Oh…I am using a NCE Powercab if that matters…no booster yet but probably in the future.
Do the two mains loop around to connect to one another at the ends, like a dogbone shape? If so, insulate the loops at each end and put autoreversers there. You can then have as many crossovers on the parallel mains without any issues. Just make sure you wire the parallel mains correctly:
Yes I am sorry I should have mentioned that. The track plan is essentially a big double track circle and the mains to connect to eachother. So do I need an auto reverser at each crossover or can I use 1 for multiple crossovers. Again pardon my ignorance. And also if the AR switches polarity because a north train is crossing over to southbound what will happen to the train I already have running south on the southbound track? Thanks
Here it is. Please no judgement from anyone on how cluttered it is. I crammed a lot into a small space. The turnout I am starting with is a single and circled in green. It goes between the north and south mains. There is however about 3 more double crossovers and at least 2 more singles that go between mains or from one main to a yard or different tracks in the Union Station area.
I see reversing loops at red arrows A,B,C, but not at your circled track, although I seem to have a problem with the color olive and following the track plan.
Maybe it’s all the same reversing loop. I also see one starting a D
Correct that part is my actual reversing loop and is all the same loop if you can call it a loop. Just wanted to be able to turn trains in the opposite direction to simulate trains returning from New York or Boston. I actually changed where it starts but that is not reflected in this track plan.
I know I will need an AR1 for the “loop”. The olive section represents the viaduct that used to exist in Providence where Union Station was located. Sorry the color and amount of tracks makes tracks hard to follow in that area. The reversing loop runs under the viaduct along with part of the main, a change I made that was suggested to me by David Popp and was not how my original plan was set up.
As far as regular crossovers on layout (other than at the reversing loop) I won’t need AR1’s do I need to insulate the 2 turnouts that I used to make single crossovers?
If you’re referring to the AR1 by Circuitron, that is made for DC only. In DCC I would suggest you use a DCC Specialties PSX-AR where you have your reversing loops. I have many of them and they work like a charm.
I am usually game to take on reversing section issues, but I took a pass on this one because the drawing that the OP provided is difficult to follow due to the coloring scheme and the apparent complexity of the track work.
The first example is the easiest way to wire a track plan like this. The green ends loops are reverse sections. It doesn;t matter if there are 1, 2, 3, or 10 crossovers in the shank park, there are still only ever 2 reverse loops.
My planned layout is two decks, with a 2 track helix, the two track main runs twice around the room. At each end there are loops, one on the lower level and one on the upper level, to loop the east main back on the west main. Only those loops will be reverse sections. It won;t matter how many crossovers I put between the mains over the run, none of those causes a short if the loops are used as the reverse sections. Making each crossover a reversing section works electrically, but some of those may be too short, plus if you have 5 crossovers, then you’d need 5 autoreverses, instead of just 2.
I won’t lie I don’t really fully get what you are saying Randy but going off the link you posted I can say that my layout is not a dog bone so it is essentially a 2 track circle with a reverse track. I deleted the viaduct and some other things from the plan to make it easier to follow and took a screen grab with the 2 reverse track turnouts circled in green. My track plan is not ideal but its what I had to do to fit what I wanted into a small space. If anyone sees any other spots that need an auto reverser please let me know. Thanks guys.
It looks like a dogbone to me and maybe even a folded dogbone, but that alone doesn’t necessarily mean that there is one or more reversing sections or reverse loops in the track plan. There may be or there may not be. The link that Randy provided to the Wiring for DCC website clearly illustrates the two alternatives for isolating reversing sections or reverse loops in a dogbone track plan.
There is more than one of us who would be willing to analyze your track plan if it weren’t for the fact that the track plan as presented is, dare I say, visually intimidating. Randy made a good suggestion when he asked if you could strip away the yards and sidings to present a simplifed plan for analysis.
As I say, there may or may not be one or more reversing sections or reverse loops. Since your computer drawing is difficult to discern, it may require a simplified hand drawn track plan without the yards and sidings. By the way, that Photobucket logo overlay sure does not make the analysis any easier.
No problem yeah I can strip away the yards and non pertinentm sidings. Shapewise I guess in that sense its somewhat of a dog bone but what I meant was mainline 1 does not connect to mainline 2 at each end in a reversing loop. Instead the 2 mains run all the way around in a circle and main 1 connects back to main 1, main 2 connects back to main 2. Then there are crossovers throughout. Strange on my end I don’t see the photobucket overlay. Give me a few and I will re-post it.
Again, I am still a newbie picking out reversing loops, but at X axis 2.7 Y axis 7.4, the turnout closer to the left side, traveling toward the bottom: if you take the furthest left track and travel downward (left means as you look at the diagram, not from the perspective a train traveling downward) I see the start of a reversing loop.
If you take the right path downward, either of to the two outside loops at the bottom right of the diagram meet face to face with the left pathway.
If anyone thinks I’m wrong speak up. I’m here to learn not to be right.
Not an easy track plan to trace, looking for reversing sections. There is as much of a chance that I could be wrong as that I could be right. But, here is how I see it.
The track plan is essentially a series of over and under ovals with crossovers here and there. The only reversing section that I see, that is connecting rails of opposite polarity, is at that green circle on the left side of the diagram at the 3’ mark. At that location, the innermost track in the right loop folds back onto the outermost track leading into the right loop.
What I would do is isolate and gap the section of track that I colored red, and treat that section of track as a reversing section.
The track you highlighted is essentially just a passing track/yard lead off of the southbound main. The far left green circled turnout that comes off of that will obviously switch polarity as it goes around the layout and connects on to the north bound main at the other circled turnout. Wouldn’t that be better suited as an isolated track with the auto reverser? Would I need 2 auto reversing units, 1 at each turnout? Pardon the noob questions.
