I am brand new to this site and a newby to model railroading. I am operating an N scale DC layout with two trains and traditional cab control. i would like to understand the process for actually operating a train with a reverse loop. My layout has one train running on a mainline and another working in a yard running in the opposite direction–these sections are of course isolated into blocks… Once the yard train is complete it runs through a reversing loop to get it back to running in the right direction on the main line.
My question is how to actually operate the train through the reversing loop. From what I have read the reverse loop switches are designed to reverse the polarity of the Main line when the train is in the reversing loop. If I do that my train on the main,line would run in reverse. So is this the right process?:
Run my yard train completely into the reverse loop.
Stop the train and reverse the polarity just in the loop and change the direction also so it doesn’t go backward
Contine on.
Or are you suppose to reverse the mainline which means I need to stop my mainline train and change it’s direction?
I apologize for such a dumb question but any help would be appreciated.
Sounds like you’re using just one power pack? If so, then yes, the mainline train will reverse when you align the main electrically so the other train can exit the loop. Since I assume you stop the one train by turning off the block it’s in, then wait for the other train to exit the loop, then switch the direction as needed per whatever train you choose to control next.
If you’re set for 2-cab control. i.e. you have two power packs switched as needed to the block(s) you want to control, then the second train can continue as before, because it won’t be affected by whatever reversing you do with the first train.
I haven’t built this layout yet, but I will have two power supplies. I have not had a reverse loop in my layouts before so I was trying to visualize how the reverse loop function would work. How dumb of me, of course the Mainline train will be say on Cab A and the Yard train on Cab B and whatever blocks the Cab A train are in will need to be isolated from the Cab B train blocks, so when I reverse the polarity in those isolated blocks it will have no effect on the Cab A train. So if I understand this correctly—once the Yard train (on Cab B) is completely in the reverse loop—I throw the reverse loop switch which will change the polarity in the block adjacent to the exiting section of the reverse loop so the train can just continue running forward into that next block. This of course will have no effect on my Mainline train since it is running in other blocks powered by Cab A.
Think of how this works on a regular interlocking plant.
Draw it out in a straight line. there is a switch leads to your loop, but pretend that it is not a loop. Suppose there is the Northbrook Branch, and the Southfield Branch.
You can dispatch a train to Northbrook or to Southfield. (The loop gets its power from the main track according to how the switch was set.)
So a WESTBOUND train departs on the Southfield Branch, and it majyckly becomes an inbound train on the Northbrook Branch, but the signal is RED and it must stop and wait for the signal. When the switch is trown, the signal clears and now it is an EASTBOUND train. The switch will send the power to the loop from the other side of the switch, but you do have to move the reversing switch because now it is an Eastbound train, not a westbound train.
Do not call it a feversing switch. Call it the EASTBOUND and WESTBOUND switch.
Your train must stop on the loop in any event because you must move the two switches anyway.
BESIDES, the LION likes Interlocking Plants, Operates the Railroad of him from the tower, and you need to give the tower operator something to do.
welcome, Greg. Each of your blocks should be controlled by a double pole, double throw (DPDT) center off switch with a feed from one side from throttle A, the other side from throttle B, and the center contacts going to the track. That way you can control two trains independently at the same time.
Yes, that’s it, and as George explains, your switching to the proper cab will then send the correctly polarized power to the block in use and keep the two trains sorted out according to where they get power from.