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00 Gauge Model Railway

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charliesteve | 07:55 Sun 08th Sep 2019 | Technology
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Hi I am currently building a 00 Gauge model railway. It has two ovals joined by points. I have a controller for power to the inside oval and a Link Wire assembly to get power to the other track. Is it possible to have the trains running in opposite directions with this arrangement or do I need two controllers to achieve? At the moment they both travel in the same direction which is not like the railway system. Thanks
Steve
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You either have to have two controllers (and isolating fishplates at the points, so that the two tracks run independently) or invest in DCC, which powers the whole track, but sends signals digitally to each loco (which have decoders inside them). Most locos are now sold with decoder slots inside them, so it is easy to add more locos as your layout builds. Have a...
08:08 Sun 08th Sep 2019
You either have to have two controllers (and isolating fishplates at the points, so that the two tracks run independently) or invest in DCC, which powers the whole track, but sends signals digitally to each loco (which have decoders inside them). Most locos are now sold with decoder slots inside them, so it is easy to add more locos as your layout builds. Have a read of this to get the idea https://www.digitrains.co.uk/dcc-guide
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Thanks for the reply but that means the points are redundant as one train can't be moved to the other track without causing electrical problems even with two controllers. I can move from track to track now with two trains but go the same way.
/// one train can't be moved to the other track without causing electrical problems ///

You won't have that problem with DCC - track polarity is constant throughout and the DCC chip in the loco determines its direction of travel.
As Canary says. Thats the beauty of DCC...you can have a really complicated layout and not have to worry about polarity, points, reversing loops, dead frogs, live frogs or anything.

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00 Gauge Model Railway

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