lego classic living room

in a previous video,i introduced you to the concept of reversing loopson a digital model railroad... a great method for taking a model train that'stravelling in one direction on your layoutand getting it to turn itself aroundand travel in the opposite direction. normally, building a reversing loop into your layoutcauses a short-circuit across the two electrical nodesof your train's power supply... but by using one of these little gadgets,a reversing loop module,it becomes possible to build reversing loops into your layout without causing an electrical short. (sound of the train's bell ringing) (sound of the train's horn blowing) i used my santa fe "super chief"in the first reversing loop video... and for this second video,which will show how to takereversing loops to the next level... i'm bringing out my lgbwhite pass and yukon route railway train.

we're here in my living roomand i've set up a very basic layout thatjust takes the train in a loop around the room. pretty simple stuff...and it gets boring after a while becausethe train just goes round and round inthe same direction all the time. not very exciting. i don't know about you,but when i see a layout like thisall i can think about is:"what can i do to make this more interesting?" we've got to spice it up!add some more track or some switches or something. so, let's see how to integrate a reversing loopinto this layout to spice it up a bit. if we add a pair of switches and some extra trackin the center of our oval layout... we can make a simple reversing loop that'll allow usto reverse the direction that our train travels. notice that the train is travellingcounterclockwise in the layout right now.

if i activate one of these switchessending the train through the reversing loop... when it exits our center section of trackand gets back to that big ovalit's now travelling clockwise around the layout. just remember that to make this work,you need to install one of theselgb double-insulated track sections at each end of that section of trackin the center of the ovalto electrically isolate it from the rest of the track. otherwise, you'd create a short circuit. and on one of the two insulated track sectionsyou need to install a digital reversing loop module.that's the key to making all this work. with this particular layout,once you've reversed the train one timeyou're a little bit stuck... because now, if you want to reverse it backto travelling counterclockwise againyou'd have to stop the train... and back it up through the reversing section of track...

then stop it again... throw the switch so it doesn't justgo back through the bypass again... and then power the trainback up in the forward direction. that's do-able, but a little bit complicated.may i suggest a better way?add a second reversing loop to the layout. so, you need two more switches,two more double-insulated track sections,another reversing loop module,and a 90-degree crossover piece,and you're in business. now, because my layout has two reversing loops,if my train begins by travelling counterclockwisearound the layout... i can just throw one switchto send the train through one of the reversing loopsto get it to travel clockwise through the layout. and then whenever i'm readyto make it go back to doing the routein the counterclockwise direction... i just throw another switchto send the train through the second reversing loop.

once you've masteredhow to make reversing loops work... and remember, the key isputting a double-insulated track sectionat each end of the reversing loop and adding a reversing loop moduleto one of the two insulated track sections... then you can start getting very creativewith your layouts. look at the upper left corner of the layout. i've added a switch that leads to a spurthat heads away from our little oval... and takes the train down the hallwayto the other end of the house. if i put a reversing loop in one of the bedrooms,it would send the train right back down hereto the living roomafter it looped around the bedroom. and that way i only need to layone set of tracks down the hallway.

now look at the lower right corner of the layout.i've added another switch. this leads to a spur that sends the trainout the doggie door and into our backyard. the thing i love about not havinga permanent train layout here at my house... is that each time i set up my model trains,i have the freedom of creating an entirely new layoutthat's different than the last time i ran my trains. it's a creative challenge to keep coming upwith new and different layoutseach and every time i set up my trains. and it's a bit of a money pitbecause i keep getting new ideasof how to build it bigger and better... and that means i'm always buyingnew switches, more track, and new gizmos. but it sure is an awful lot of fun! (sound of a steam train whistle) i hope i gave you a few ideas in this video...or at least entertained you for a few minuteswith views of my lgb white pass dieselrunning on the layout.

if you ever want to see the real thing...the real white pass railway...just book an alaska cruisethat visits the town of skagway. in skagway, you'll have the opportunity tonot only see the real white pass railway,but to ride on it... on the same historic routethat the gold miners took back in the 1800safter gold was discoveredin the yukon territory of canada. i'm jim zim.thanks for watching. there are nearly 300 videoshere on my youtube channel... about g-scale model trains... some great vacations i've taken on cruise ships... and about the cocker spaniel puppieswe used to breed years ago. i'm going to pop up links to a recommended videoin each of those three categories right now.

just click on whichever one of these interests you. and do consider subscribing to my channel...so that youtube knows to recommend my new videos to you whenever i post a new one.

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