DCS Wiring for Two Rail, Help

 I have the pos on the inside rail to keep things straight. My layout is around the walls so there's no turn arounds. I can turn an engine backwards and throw it's polarity switch when needed. I divided my 150' mainline into four blocks. connected into pairs the two are then connected together on the same channel of the tiu.

 So two channels send out wires to term strips. they go to ends of their paired blocks. Make sense??

 My engine yard is on another TIU channel to keep them from stealing signal strength.

Are you using AC or DC for power ?

    1)  See Dave Hikel's Feb 16, 2013 post in the DCS forum

    2)  If DC, I wonder if just putting a diode bridge in place of the polarity switch would work ?  You would need 'reversing' blocks at the polarity change points to eliminate a loco or car bridging the + and - sides of course.

   Just a thought.  And I can't find Drew McCann's "E44 polarity changer drawing in a search function, so that must predate the 'forum change'.

Best regards, SZ

 [ Disclaimer:  NOT a DCS person;  hence, I must be one of those guys that likes "pain and suffering".]

Basically, you wire it as if you're building a conventional DC-powered layout.

Go to http://www.azatrax.com/  They make sensors and "old school" polarity reversing equipment that will switch the track polarity for reversing loops, wyes, etc. These will keep your "hot" connection where it should be. I've been looking at their products for my eventual 2-rail layout projects.

Where it might get complicated is when you have multiple trains running. You'll need to keep them separated far enough so that when the reversing zone changes polarity it will only impact one train. Of course, you could set up multiple reversible sections along the mainline.

I may be missing something in your explanation, but it seems to me he would have to create a "block + cab control" system, just as in a standard DC system, to keep all of the 'reversed' locos in 'reversed' blocks -- which negates the biggest advantage of DCS, which is that you don't need all of those blocks and their associated control wiring.

That's why I think some sort of onboard solution would be better.  There would have to be a DCC-like polarity switcher, or a switch/relay at the reverse loop itself, 1 trainlength + of course.  Turntables / 'simple wyes' could just be handled with a DPDT toggle or relay as usual.

Of course, I could be wrong.

SZ

 I believe the new PS3 boards will pick up signal from either rail. I hope that means they can run a reverse loop.

 I know I can put mine on the rails and not worry about a switch anymore.

The operative word here is PS2. They can't switch polarity on-board, so if you have your layout wired to function like a conventional DC layout with automatic polarity reversing (using sensors and DPDT relays,) the DCS signal will always maintain the proper polarity as the train passes through reversing loops, wyes, etc.

PS3 engines aren't polarity sensitive, but will be just fine on a polarity-switching layout.

Joe   So! you basically keep all your locos running in the same direction, with signal on the inside rail, polarity on the loco (switch) set to suit. This works well as long as you dont turn a loco (turntable or wye)  If you have a steamer on the turn table and you turn her a DTDP switch( or relay) would fix the problem, but the polarity switch would have to be thrown in the loco as well, and would you lose the signal at this point ?     (cTr...Choose the Right)  Stephen