Sort of a reverse loop. Wiring?

[Chris333]

On my HOn30 layout I have the general layout shown below. I'm mostly just gonna let them go roundy round, but the area of the passing siding and wye is in a "town" area and I might want to use the run around track. Could I just wire a reversing switch to the area in yellow for when I'm doing some switching?

[Sokramiketes]

Yup.   

Or a gauntlet segment and no reversing switch, if you don't want the ability to reverse trains through the crossover.

I assume the wye will be dead?

[jagged ben]

DC?

 A single switch would require that anytime you reverse you would have to stop the train in the reversing section, throw both the reversing section switch and the throttle direction, then continue in the same direction through one of the reversing turnouts.  There's no running through a reverse move without stopping even if there's no operational reason to stop.  Also your throttle direction will not be consistent to the locomotive.  You'll need to think of throttle direction as 'clockwise' and 'counter clockwise', not forward and backward.

If that works for you mentally then it works electrically, including for the wye.

With just one more switch on the rest of the layout you can run through without stopping and always keep the throttle 'forward' or 'backward.'  Both methods have their confusions.  I think the cost of the switch matters less than being comfortable with the way you operate.

[Chris333]

Yes DC. The wye will probably never get used. I just want to be able to use the run-around.

[jagged ben]

There would be no issue with using the wye.

[eric220]

The way you've got it set up, a standard autoreverser should work, provided that you only use the track as a runaround or a main. In those circumstances, you're always encountering a polarity flip when the train is entering the reversing section, meaning the reversing section gets adjusted to match what the train's already doing.

[peteski]

The way you've got it set up, a standard autoreverser should work, provided that you only use the track as a runaround or a main.

There are DC reversers available?  That sure makes the DC-running hassle-free.

[Chris333]

Yeah who makes those?  Was gonna just get a Frog Juicer, but they only work in DCC.

[carmelmodelrr]

For my reverse loop in DC, I use Circuitron's AR-1.  The AR-1 uses Circuitron's Opto-Sensors, which I believe come with the AR-1.  However, the Opto-Sensors are light sensitive, so I changed the sensor itself (the Opto-Sensor) to the "NightScope Infra-red Detectors from Boulder Creek Engineering (bouldercreekengineering.com).  These detectors work in any light (or lack of light) allowing nighttime operation.

Richard Wroblewski
carmelmodelrr

[jagged ben]

One way to automate this scenario would be to use a DPDT relay (instead of a manual switch) that reverses the yellow section when either turnout within it is thrown.  (If you're not using Tortoises you can use a small single pole switch attached to the turnout, quite a few ideas have been shared for that on this forum).   HOWEVER, the train would always have to be shorter than the reversing section.  And you'd probably still end up stopping the train in the middle of it because you'd need to close both turnouts in order to exit through either of them on the closed route.   

I do not believe the Circuitron AR-1 will contribute much to this application, but maybe there's a possibility I haven't thought of.   

[nkalanaga]

Stopping wouldn't be a problem, prototypically. if you have hand thrown switches.

For my wye tail I connected the reversing switch to the turnout, so that polarity is always right.  But the tail track(s) are a stub staging yard.  Here that would be hard to do, because you have reversing turnouts at both ends. 

[Greg Elmassian]

Massoth also makes an autoreverser that works on DC as well as DCC