I don’t know if this has been real clear before, but you can set up a separate bus for just the reversing loop. This reversing loop bus should be connected to the output of the AR and nowhere else. The track in the reversing loop should be connected to the reversing loop bus by feeders just like you would do on the main section of layout. The reversing loop bus should use the same heavy gauge of wire that your main layout bus uses. (AWG12 or 14)
20 feet of track in a reversing loop is long enough that you should be using a bus for your reversing loop wiring.
Drum Roll, Please! It worked! Feeder off the main bus to the rails just outside the reversing section indicated only a very small voltage drop --0.05v-- over the gap. This without any other new feeders to the long section through the ‘hidden’ staging yard.
Multiple test runs through the reversing section went flawlessly.
I could not have gotten through this Gordian Knot without the help/ideas from all you guys, so a great big Thank You to each of you.
Now to look at some of the suggestion you offered to make the layout even more bullet-proof. I’m sure I’ll be back soon with more mysteries to solve.
Thank you, MIke, for working through this with us. We’ve all learned something tonight. This is another thing to add to our bag of ‘things to try" when auto-reversers don’ behave. At the start, this was a puzzle, but it shows how a few questions, a few answers and a few experiments can narrow down a problem and solve it.
I’ve been watching this forum for years, and, as far as I know, this is a solution that’s never come up before. Well done.
I have an MRC auto reverser on my layout. I wires it per the instruction sheet. It worked with the loco entering one way but not the other way. I went to the Digitrax web site to look at the manual for their AR1 and wired the MRC one up using the AR1 manual and it worked. .Joe