Which way?

[spikey]

By convention, which way should my locomotives go round a circle of track when the controller is set to "forward" - clock or anticlock?

[lesmond]

"The right hand rail, when looking along the loco towards the front should be positve to obtain a forward motion" slightly paraphrased from Brian Lambert:

 

http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/Electrical.html

 

I think it depends on which way is "forward" on your circle of track. I usually make the rail nearest the edge of the baseboard positive when the controller is set to forward, so trains run left to right, but then I don't usually have double track lines.

 

Les

[JDW]

In terms of which way round should the wires be connected to the track, I don't think it really matters - I always had it so that the direction of the switch matched the direction of travel, switch to the left, train goes to the left.  Makes sense to me, and I'm the only one it has to make sense to.  Have had a problem once or twice when I've taken decoders out of older stock and rewires them as DC-only when I've put the connections to the motor the wrong way, but quickly resolved,  And make sure all your controllers arewired the same way around, that's the important thing! Now, on DCC, all of my stock has a yellow dot underneath to indicate which end is "forward", which is always the leading end when leaving the fiddle yard.

[BR60103]

As my layout is a rather stretched-out loop with much looking like double track, mine is set for left-hand running, which means that for the nearest track forward is to the left.

However, my dead end terminus (Minories) runs with forward into the station.

[spikey]

Thanks chaps.  I only asked because I'd read somewhere that "most" non-DCC exhibition layouts are wired according to some hallowed tradition or other.  Mine's wired so that a train on the "main line" nearest the controller travels in the same direction I turn the controller for "forward", same as JDW.

[johnb]

Now, on DCC, all of my stock has a yellow dot underneath to indicate which end is "forward", which is always the leading end when leaving the fiddle yard.

Wa I do it too, but with an orange dot!!!

[lesmond]

Thanks chaps.  I only asked because I'd read somewhere that "most" non-DCC exhibition layouts are wired according to some hallowed tradition or other.  Mine's wired so that a train on the "main line" nearest the controller travels in the same direction I turn the controller for "forward", same as JDW.

 

I think thats on of the great myths of DC wiring - that there is a definitive way of doing it. Keep it as simple as you can, colour code and label everything, and make it so you can use it without giving it too much thought. After all, the purpose is to play with our trains

[JDW]

Wa I do it too, but with an orange dot!!!

 

Orange?!  But those sticky dots only come in sheets of yellow, red, green and blue!  Orange???  Sorcery, I say, witchcraft and sorcery.  

 

(I use red ones for other peoples' stock which lives on my layout.  But if anyone needs any green and blue ones, I have lots spare...)

[kevinlms]

Thanks chaps.  I only asked because I'd read somewhere that "most" non-DCC exhibition layouts are wired according to some hallowed tradition or other.  Mine's wired so that a train on the "main line" nearest the controller travels in the same direction I turn the controller for "forward", same as JDW.

But still a case of the right hand rail will be positive! Unless something has been assembled incorrectly for RTR models. Sometimes, kits get wired backwards & can be very confusing.

[The Johnster]

If you are modelling a single track railway which is used in both directions, which a single track oval will be, unless there is a section which appears to be double track as BR60103 mentions, then 'forward' or 'backward' are academic constructs with no practical meaning.  A train can be moving forwards in either direction, or backwards for that matter but it will normally be moving forwards in it's progress from an imaginary or modelled starting point to an imaginary or modelled terminating point, whichever direction it is travelling in.  It is also a bit academic to consider smokebox first, or bunker/tender first, as moving forward or backward in the railway sense.   Only ill informed passengers refer to a bunker first tank engine as going backwards!

 

My ancient but still working perfectly Gaugemaster controller has a 3 position switch mounted horizontally beneath the power knob; centre is off and left or right are both on and will send the loco in opposite directions.  I have wired the layout so that the trains move in the direction indicated by this switch as I look at them from the operating chair.   In the days when I had a H & M Powermaster (a name Clarkson would love!) which was a single knob with a centre off detente, I wired layouts the same way, and tend to think in terms of 'up' or 'down' directions, and trains drawing or moving forward in the direction of travel, setting back, or propelling in the direction of travel, rather than forward or backwards in a more general and non-railway specific sense.

[DCB]

I turn the knob to the left and expect the loco to go to the left and turn it to the right and expect it to go to the right.   I have never found a controller with a reversing switch that was any good, except a Minic Hand throttle which is brilliant for shunting with my very low geared Wrenn Gronk..

However if the operating position is a well inside the baseboard to the left is anticlockwise and if outside then to the left is clockwise. 

[The Johnster]

I have to admit I preferred the centre off knob of the old Powermaster to the reversing centre off slider switch on the Gaugemaster, but have got used to it and find it replicates the reverser of the loco in a fairly satisfying way.  But if I saw a H & M going cheap on a secondhand stall at a show, I might be tempted!  Proper, traditional, engineering, weighed a ton and looked like it was hewn and milled from a single lump of steel by blokes in dungarees and flat caps smoking Woodbines (the blokes, not the flat caps) in big factories Oop North.  It felt like the lights should dim momentarily when you switched it on, and hummed...

[bike2steam]

Thanks chaps.  I only asked because I'd read somewhere that "most" non-DCC exhibition layouts are wired according to some hallowed tradition or other.

That's new to me !? I've been ( seriously) building layouts, and stock for over 40 years, and just make sure that kit built locos have the same polarity as the rtr stock when the chassis is nearly finished.