04-16-2009, 09:35 AM
With regard to Dr Wayne's question about access to the back of the wye, is the layout against a corner wall, or do you have room to walk behind it? If there is a "maintenance aisle" behind the layout, even if it isn't as wide as an "operator's aisle", derailments at the wye would not be a problem. I don't think having the reverse loop shorter than your train will pose a problem as long as you don't use interior lighting on the cars or some sort of detectors on the wheels. I think that technically a reverse loop just needs to be shorter than your longest locomotive or locomotive consist. I'm not sure if you will get a short circuit at the 2 switches that could be used to revers the direction of the train at the loop however. If you are running dcc, you could put the gaps in and automatic reverse loop detectors/reversers on the switch that forms the main loop and also on the last switch coming out of the siding.