Return Loops and the Single Trolley...

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

For all that I’ve fiddled with 027 trains since 1967, I must confess I haven’'t actually worked with Switch One until I picked up a pair of 1022s at the train show in Springfield, MO on 8 April of this year.

'Course, I now own a dozen or so. I LOVE eBay. :slight_smile:

Anyhoo, I was researching Ye Olde 1122s on Google (which is how I found this forum), as I was wondering a) why they didn’t switch power like the 1022s did and b) why the motors were buzzing when power was applied to the rails.

I have since learned about the anti-derail features, insulated pins et cetera, and came up with one of those ‘now why didn’t I think of this sooner?’ epiphanies.

Now, in most conventional layouts, the anti-derail feature is used in large ovals and such, giving a second route for trains, et cetera. At its smallest, an 027 return loop is of limited utility to anything but the shortest of trains.

It is, however, perfect for 027 trolleys! [:D]

Moreover, it’s perfect for those trolleys (Rail King, Western Hobbycraft, Bowser, etc.) not equipped with bump-and go. Just set the car on the tracks, let it go and the switches do the rest of the work.

A loop to loop line can be constructed in a 5 x 6 space (my arbitrary limit, as this is the dimensions of two six foot folding tables laid side by side). I’ll throw one together this weekend and keep you folks posted as to how it goes.

VTY,

-MMM-

2

Sounds cool! Don’t forget to include some images with your update.

While my trolley is bump-and-go, I like the idea of return loops. That way you can put something else on the track besides a bump-and-go trolley.

3

Poor trolley, can’t get a date. There’s all sorts of things you can do like this with trolleys, and you are right, they are perfect for 027 curves.

4

Here are a couple of other easy things you can do:

Put a control rail on the facing-point side of the reversing-loop switch, to throw the switch so that the trolley always takes the same direction through the loop.

Instead of a simple dogbone with a loop at each end, let three tracks, each with a reversing loop, radiate from a wye. Use a control rail on each track to throw its wye switch so that the trolley car takes the next track when it returns to the wye.

You can combine these two ideas by connecting each reversing-loop switch’s control terminals to the corresponding wye switch, eliminating the control rail. As the trolley leaves the wye, it throws the reversing loop switch. As it leaves the reversing loop, it throws the wye switch.

The idea is not limited to three wye tracks. Any number of lines can branch off a ring of switches with their trailing-point tracks connected together. And multiple wyes or rings can be linked together, with the trolley exploring every loop before repeating the pattern.

5

Wow, Bob, That sounds neat. I’m having a hard time visualizing it though.

6

I’ll try to describe an example layout; and maybe someone who knows how can sketch it and post it.

Imagine a town square, with trolley tracks on all four sides around a courthouse. At each corner, instead of turning the corner, the tracks from the adjacent sides connect to the trailing-point parts of a switch. The facing-point part of the switch connects to a track which goes off to some other part of town and ends in a loop.

A trolley moving east on the north side of the square goes into the northeast switch and off to a loop in the northeast part of the town, then returns to the square. When it leaves the square, it throws the switch to keep from derailing, which throws the far-away switch at the loop also. When the trolley reaches the loop, it travels around it, then throws the loop switch as it exits the loop. This throws the switch back at the square also; so, when it returns to the square, the trolley takes the track going south down the east side of the square.

At the southeast corner, it encounters a similar situation, which takes it to a loop in the southeast part of town. At the southwest corner, another switch and another trip to another reversing loop.

But, at the northwest corner, the track leading away from the square goes not to a loop but to a wye. The trolley goes through the wye, onto a track which then toes to a loop. As it leaves that loop, the trolley throws the loop switch, which throws the wye switch that it last passed through. So, when the trolley returns to the wye, it doesn’t return to the square but instead goes off to the third wye track, to yet another loop. That loop also throws the wye switch that it connects with, so that the trolley finally returns to the square, now travelling east on the north side of the square. This is where we started.

7

This is very helpful, Bob. How would one go about creating a control rail on the facing point side of the switches?

8

You don’t need one, Doug, for the example layout I just described. It is only necessary for either of my first two examples in the earlier posting, which were the original loop by itself, but with a consistent direction of travel, or the wye itself. When you combine the loops with the wye idea, the switches whose points face each other provide the control rails for each other just by having their terminals wired together in parallel.

If you do want to use a control rail, as in the first two examples in the earlier posting, you just use a track section with an insulated outside rail.