hello i have an area that im extending called the yard and doc area and i opted to include a wye so that trains can come from either direction, i obviously have a short situation and will need a reversing unit, there are several things i can do to gap and add the unit, I was thinking on several units, the issue always comes into play that you will have a short when another train enters that section and the section needs to be able to hold the entire train, i also have metal wheels on my cars, just wanted to see if anyone had a better solution to set this up so there would be no way to create a short running multiple trains. The west and east parts of the track do run back into each other eventually. The easiest way is to setup the gaps so the only way to have a short would be to have a train collision ( 2 trains cannot go through a turnout together, obviously) but in this case there are multiple turnouts involved.
hello i have an area that im extending called the yard and doc area and i opted to include a wye so that trains can come from either direction, i obviously have a short situation and will need a reversing unit, there are several things i can do to gap and add the unit, I was thinking on several units, the issue always comes into play that you will have a short when another train enters that section and the section needs to be able to hold the entire train, i also have metal wheels on my cars, just wanted to see if anyone had a better solution to set this up so there would be no way to create a short running multiple trains. The west and east parts of the track do run back into each other eventually. The easiest way is to setup the gaps so the only way to have a short would be to have a train collision ( 2 trains cannot go through a turnout together, obviously) but in this case there are multiple turnouts involved.
I have the same setup as the drawing on the left, for DCC. What I don’t understand is what the double gaps are for in the in the ‘feed’ section of track. I don’t have those gaps and the wye and reverser work just fine.
Now, I know next to nothing about reverse loops, but it seems that it would take more than just gapping the rails. How would you supply power to the rails inside the reverse loop and how would you switch them to match the polarity of the track outside the loop?
Chuck, I was replying to South Penn who was asking about the necessity of double gaps. Of course, you need power to the reversing section, as shown in the diagrams included with gregc’s reply.
Thank you everyone for all your great ideas, my question here is what i\f 2 or more trains enter the gapped areas at one time? or a train that is entering the reverse section and exiting at the same time due to a long train?
this seems to be a really good option cause the only way 2 trains could cause a short would be if they collided going into the spur, one question is this puts the entire spur area on the reverse section and causes the entire reverse section which will include a yard and dock area to switch polarity when a train enters the reverse section is this ok? would that cause any issues with locos etc…
Anyone have any options if I wanted to add another power district on the spur? I will have a barge dock area and yard area; I would if possible like to give them each a district. However this would now cause issues with the reverse section if two trains entered it at opposite locations at the same time, which could happen. Thanks again for all your ideas to everyone!!!
while there are exceptions, auto-reversers and reverse loops are generally not intended to allow another train to enter the section while the section is occupied.
as already shown, one leg of the wye is wired as a reverse section and because a wye is typically only used to turn a locomotive, that leg is stub ended (doesn’t lead anywhere) and only two sets of gaps are required to isolate that leg from the two other legs.
But a wye can certainly be used to connect a track that may rejoin the mainline. In this case, a 3rd set of gaps is needed further down that leg (farther from the wye) to create a more conventional reverse loop that is “longer than the longest train”.
But if that leg of the wye does not rejoin the main, there may be no need for a 3rd set of gaps and the entire section of the railroad accessed through that leg of the wye could be a single reversing section.
This, of course, can be a problem if that section (red in figure below) is large and futher isolation (circuit breakers) is desired because the auto-reverser is designed to supply power to a single locomotive or consist. If this is the case, a reverse section “longer than the longest train” is needed, isolated with 3 sets of gaps.
greg’s solution would work and the reversing section could be protected by a PSX-AR which is both an auto-reverser and a circuit breaker.
But, his diagram does not appear to reflect your specific situation.
I have attached a diagram for your particular reversing section. Since the reversing section is essentially a stub end arrangement, only two sets of gaps would be required. The yard leg of the wye becomes the reversing section. The PSX-AR would provide both auto-reversing and circuit breaker protection.
In this arrangement, two trains could simultaneously enter the wye.
