Hello everyone, I’m new here and to model railroading (probably obvious once you read this post). Last night I assembled my first layout ever, based on Kato’s Amherst 2005 design: http://www.katousa.com/cgi-bin/dl/dl.pl?dl.mif,N-plan-amherst-2005.pdf. I’ve got it all set up and when I pass through the double crossover I encounter what I believe is called a “reverse loop”, i.e. I have to reverse direction on the power pack on the track that the train is entering. Not sure how to fix this – any advice?
Looking at the diagram I don't see a reverse loop. Maybe the feeder for the track you are entering is connected in reverse?
As Gats said, you've probably reversed the polarity of the wires on the feeder for the inside track. Are you using all Kato terminal track, if so, make sure they are all aligned the same way when going around the loops (i.e., the little plugs underneath are all on the same side when going around in the loop). If you are using terminal unijoiners, then make sure you keep the blue and white wires consistent.
I ran into a similar problem with mine and like the others said, it sounds like you have the wires reversed. However, I must contend with what Rick said. It is not always as easy as keeping blue and white wires on the sames sides. That's what I did and I discovered quickly that there are some odd balls in every batch. What I did was take my trusty Railpower 1300 and tested each set of wires individually for polarity using a regular DC powered loco. It worked like a charm!
