Legal Removal Request

Post: Here's a quick word about [b]polarity[/b]. You'd like to have your railroad configured such that trains run forward in default mode. What you should do is decide whether you prefer left-hand running or right-hand running (assuming parallel double tracks), then hook up the power wires such that the locomotive defaults to running that way. If it doesn't, swap the two power leads, either at the track or at the DPDT fwd/rev relay terminals. Check this constantly as you connect up your wiring, so that your trains will smoothly go from one track electrical block to the next without interruption. If you don't have it wired correctly, the power pickups on the locomotive will form a short circuit when the locomotive goes from one electrical block to the next, and the train will, at best, stop. At worst, if there's no circuit breaker in your power pack, you can have a fire. ([i]Voice of experience: usually what happens with no circuit breaker is that the insulation melts off the wiring and ruins it.[/i]) I'll mention in passing that there are nasty things called "reversing loops" which complicate wiring. Having a loop of track double back on itself forms a short circuit through the rails, unless you take some special precautions ([i]such as rail electrical gaps and a strategically-positioned isolated track power block.[/i]) It's simple to handle, but I'll avoid discussing that for the moment. If you are interested, please post a request for details. As to color coding, I'm fortunate in that, being a pack rat, I've collected wiring over the years. Thirty-some-odd years ago, I cleaned a bunch of 50-conductor color-coded cable out of my wife's new offices during a relocation. It lives on in my model railroading! Things are much easier to troubleshoot when your wiring is color coded.