Reverse Track Stoppage

Are you tying your outside ground rails together?  Do you have a wire drop connected to the straight section between the switches?

Ron

What brand track system and switches are you using?

Ron

Ron045, no wiring done anywhere. Just the initial clip on direct from the Power Pack for the entire layout.

RonPRR, not sure what track system, guess Lionel, it's 027, but the switches are Lionel manuals

I suspect that the switch is the problem. Some (Atlas in particular) have jumpers on the underside the route power between the various sections of the center rail.  If one has burned out then power won't reach the corresponding section of rail and its attached sections of track.  The quickest and simplest solution is the run a power feed to the center rail of the reverse loop.

Jan

@RooMonster posted:

Ron045, no wiring done anywhere. Just the initial clip on direct from the Power Pack for the entire layout.

RonPRR, not sure what track system, guess Lionel, it's 027, but the switches are Lionel manuals

IMHO you need to have a power drop on either side of a switch.  It's not the center rail that is the issue is the outside rails.  In a switch part of the outside rails have to be insulated where the engine pickup roller crosses over.  This would also explain why it seems to work when the points are in a particular position.  When the points are touching the proper outside rail, the circuit is complete.

As mentioned above, You could add a power drop or lockon in the track section between the two switches (where the engine dies due to lack of electricity). This should fix your problem, regardless of any imperfection in the switch.

This is no imperfection of the switch, or a design flaw.  To the contrary, some post-war Lionel manual switches have a safety feature built in that removes power from a stub siding, when the switch is thrown against the direction of travel. This feature prevents an errant train from derailing on a switch that is not equipped (because it's manual) with an anti-derail feature, as the electrically operated switches are equipped.

As the gentlemen above suggest, just use a jumper wire to tie the center rails together along the loop, and to the main line.

By the way, to enjoy toy electric trains, you really need to equip yourself with a few basic electrical testing and diagnostic tools. These problems do not solve themselves, even with the best intentions (and often correct advice) that you get here. You should pick up a digital VOM (volt ohm meter) available for $10 or less. Also some test leads with alligator clips, and a small soldering iron with RESIN-CORE solder.

@RooMonster posted:

Hello everyone. New here. I put up a O layout recently, then added a section of track that is essentially a reverse loop.... I tried with an automatic switch, but the switch wouldn't stay in the curved position.

With tubular style track, many of the older automatic switches require removing one of the steel track joining pins and replacing it with a fiber insulating pin on a particular outer rail of the switch.  Not sure if they are all the same.  Here's a link to a great resource section of this forum for further reading on the electrical connections for some of the older devices:

https://ogrforum.com/...rials-andamp-manuals