After spending about 10 hours isolating track and still getting shorts during my learn and experiment stage I have learned I need to add an Auto Reverser to each crossing route that makes the “X” in the center of my figure 8 inside my Oval.
There are four Peco Turnouts andoneAtlas 45 degree crossing in the set up.
Route 1 of the which goes from the Turnout at the the top left of the Oval through the 45 degree crossing and down to the turnout at the bottom right. If I read the Digitrax AR1 instruction correctly I should isolate the connections on the two Turnouts on the divergent route entering and exiting the route going through the crossing top left to bottom right. With the AR1 near the top left turnout I run a track wire from the AR1 to the mainline before the approaching turnout and I run the Auto Reverse wires to the track that makes up the branch of the ”x” associated with it past the isolated divergent part of the turnout.
I would mirrior this with a second AR1 for Route 2 of the “X”, the route that goes from the turnout at the top right through the 45 degree crossing down to the bottom left turnout on the Oval.
Iam asking this because it is not a closed reverse loop but rather a crossing reversing routes with the 45 degree crossing.
Am I Wiring this correctly?
I have a drawing, just need to resize It and attach a link. I will do it if necessary.
According to model railroader Allen Greenspan: " “ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”
In other words, pictures help alot.
You shouldn’t have to resize any pictures on this forum, but posting pics is tricky. There is a sticky on how to do it in the General Forum. Linking to google, facebook, dropbox or dragging and dropping, do not work.
Yup, read the sticky. I just need to upload my photo to a link on one of my websites. Need to do it from my computer, don’t have web and ftp software on my iPad.
Imgur.com is my current favorite. If you ever heard of photobucket, erase it from your memory.
I’m not the guy to answer your question, but I’m interested in seeing what the gurus say about the crossing. (assuming I am reading your question correctly). Sooner or later I will have a similar question.
This site answered my question. The “balloon” route diagram explains how I need to insulate the track. Now all I need to do is see how the 45 degree crossing affects everything, but as U understand it the crossing is insulated so there should be no problems with it.
My HO Atlas crossings, which I presume are typical, have jumpers that provide continuity to each rail in a given direction, and the other route is totally independent. You can test that by checking resistance between the rail segments with an ohm meter.
It’s much like one route were 4" above, or below, the other. Completely separate electrically, just physically crossing each other without touching electrically. You will note insulators that keep the intersecting rails from touching.
What Paul said is a great way to visualize the Atlas crossing. 2 completely different tracks stacked above one another, as if they don’t even touch.
Unless your Atlas crossing is from the 50’s or something, it will be made this way. The completely insulated versions have been around a LONG time now.
Yes, exactly! I am trying to verify where to place the insulated joints on the Turnouts and where to place my two Digitrax AR1 unitS before I start drilling holes and getting under the table with my bad back.
How long are the trains you plan to run, and are there any other tracks besides those shown?
In general, it’s bad practice to have longer trains than the crossover sections. In general, it will mostly work, but you can run into problems if you have a lighted caboose or passenger coach at the end of the train, because the autoreverser will be trying to match polarity at both ends of the reversing section, and it can’t do that.
Autoreversers generally have less power capacity than your DCC base station or circuit breaker, so you might want to avoid putting things like a large yard or turntable inside the reversing section. If you do put a turntable in a reversing section, make sure it automatically reverses polarity itself and does not require its own autoreverser. Daisy-chaining two autoreversers is a no-no, because they’ll end up fighting each other to make polarity flips.
Figure 8 straights are six feet, three feet on each side of the crossing.
My longest consist will fit in a five foot section.
Also, when installing an auto reverser one set of track leads goes to the mainline Oval, the other set goes to the reversing section. Do/Can any other track power leads go to the reversing section?
When wiring a reversing section, power to the input side of the auto-reverser comes from the main bus. Any and all feeder wires from inside the reversing section connect to the output side of the auto-reverser. All feeder wires from the non-reversing section connect to the main bus, never to the auto-reverser.
There is an outside Oval, 22 degree radius. The inside Oval is at 20 degree radius and is accessed by a double crossover from the outer oval. The ovals both have their own Bus wire and are isolated from each other.
So, I will probably run more than one train, possibly three. One orbiting the outer Oval while the train on the inner Oval goes through operations making deliveries and pick ups along the straights of the Figure 8.
There is also a separate Freight/staging yard off the outside Oval which will have an isolated engine yard and Coach yard. A Switcher will run these operations With maybe a second Switcher on the inside loop Figure 8 .
I have had pretty good success with DCC, but didn’t understand the basics of a reverse loop. I am sure it will take some tweaking to finalize it all.
What Rich says. There has to be a commonality that is reversed only in the case of the track…the isolated track…that is to be reversed. Think of the reversal as a ‘correction’ that takes place as soon as the first metal tire crosses the gap/insulator. If the isolated section, the one that gets ‘reversed’, is out of phase with the section on which the metal tire is currently running, the bridging will cause a short. It will only be a briefest of shorts because of the sensitivity of the auto-reverser.
What this means then, this larger commonality, is that the bus must provide the reference point against which the reverser makes its decision. Therefore, the standard must be ‘input’ to the reverser, meaning it must get its input of referencing phase from the bus.
OK, so there is more to the layout than just the portion that I have drawn.
Let’s start with this. I have developed a two-rail diagram for your review, one rail colored red and one rail covered blue. Using that wiring protocol, you can isolate the figure 8 and use only one auto-reverser to control it.
As this two-rail diagram is drawn, there are two points of reverse polarity on the left side of the diagram. The black dots are insulated rail joiners. The black dots (insulated rail joiners) on the right side of the track diagram represent the remaining gaps necessary to isolate the reversing section.
