Old Fart back in the hobby after 55 years. Trying to catch up on stuff that has happened in that amount of time. DCC WOW! Resubscribe to MR, Two new books on Diesel Locomotive spotting,looking at all the WEB Sites on the Hobby. My question, and I’m sure it has been asked a thousand times or more and the answer must lie in several Databases, but I can’t find it, is, The mysterious reverse loop enigma. I get that we have to insulate the track where it joins the departure track, inside track becomes outside track,etc but. In experimenting with my little N scale Loco, (Grandkids bought me for Christmas) if my Loco is running right to left on the track and I pick it up and turn it in the opposite direction and replace it on the track it continues to run right to left. Now I see this as a problem for my little train as it reenters the track it has left running right to left and now I’m expecting it to run left to right. What am I missing about this? Oh the Polarity!
Welcome back to the brotherhood!
I assume that your N-scale loco is standard DC, not DCC. Direction of movement is determined by rail polarity and is independent of the direction the loco is facing. I cheat by mounting “reverse” switches to throw horizontally. That way, the switch position indicates which way the loco will move, regardless of how the smokebox is oriented.
A reversing connection (reverse loop, wye or diagonal crossing of a deformed circle main lap) must be totally isolated and provided with its own reverse switch. Then, while the train is transiting that isolated reverse track section, you have to throw the ‘mainline’ reverse switch to allow reentry to the main in the opposite direction.
Gotcha! It’s never simple is it? You’re right about my Loco being plain ole vanilla DC. I guess DCC is the way to go. My space is so limited so, I was thinking of a long shelf layout with drop down reversing loops at either or both ends. Aw Heck, I’ll just stick to a modified loop like a balloon squeezed in the middle. DCC tho! The mind revels in the possibilities! The Wallet flinches at the expense.
Since I was starting new I found I found that the expsense (of DCC) wasn’t that much more. It DOES allow for possibilities and can be easier to wire.
I came back after 40 years wandering in the wilderness. At first, DCC was one of those things I “planned to do one of these days.” When I bought the system and plugged it in, though, I became a born-again model railroader. All the fun of being a kid was back. You really do “run the trains, not the track.” The expense really isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things, and the improvement in the way you run your railroad is easily worth it.