Howdy Folks, We (The Muskegon Railroad Historical Society), are building an "N" scale layout of Grand Haven, MI. in the 1930-1940's era. The Depot in Grand Haven had only a single track running to it. Our plan was to just make a continuous loop, But, we don't really have the space at the one end of the layout for the loop. So is there at way to animate the layout in such a way as the passenger train could come into the station head end first, and then back out through a wye, and head out head end first? Here is the hitch, The Museum folks want it to arrive and depart on about a 15 minute cycle. HELP!!! Mark+
Mark, it is possible. One of the local clubs has a loop-to-wye and they use photocells which trigger the switch machines and locomotive direction. The short train comes around from the loop side, and goes thru one leg of the wye, passes over the photocell, which cuts the power from the rails and throws the turnout. After a few seconds, the train backs up thru the other leg of the wye, and passes over another photocell, which kills the power and throws the other turnout. After another few seconds, the train starts up and heads out towards the loop side again. They use DCC for momentum control. Unfortunately, I'm not a member, so this is all the info I can give you. -Mike
If you have enough room for a wye, then you should have enough room for a loop as well. But if you only want one track going through the station you'll have to incorporate a reverse loop. You would need the same reverse wiring for the wye, but the loop would eliminate the complicated approach as described by pastoolio.
There are 100 ways to make this work. To point to two useful ones. Look up Circuitron Electronics for Model Railroads They have a lot of intersting circuits, auto-reversers with timers, etc. Second, look at JMRI (http://jmri.sourceforge.net/) and a DCC system. Someone will have to do some electronics work and programming, but this is totally possible about 10 different ways. The DC and DCC solutions are very different, in implementation cost, complexity, troubleshooting, and overall reliability.
I'd question the museum's 15 minute cycle. That' a long time for an adult to wait. Unbearably long for a child. Some type of viewer activated circuit may be more desirable. Our club used a motion detector on the layout we built for the B & O Museum in Ellicott City, MD. Martin Myers
