How to reverse directions?

[bsegel]

Hi all,
a friend of mine has a train set he sets up every Christmas that runs along a shelf on two walls. So basically the layout is an "L" shape. When the car gets to the end of the track it hits a bumper and reverses direction.

I'm wondering how I go about setting up a similar arrangement. What exactly reverses the current so that the train goes the other way? Is it a function in the bumper or is it in the engine itself?

I appreciate any help you can give me, thanks.

 

[60103]

If this is a Lionel set, the mechanism is in the car that reverse the wiring for the motor magnet when it hits the bumper.
If it's a Bachman set, I don't know.
There are electronic devices that can sense the car at the end of track and reverse it. A switch on the bumper could change a relay and reverse the wiring to the track.

 

[who_dat73]

We have somthing like that on our club layout that we run during the fair it has a eletric eye type thing that when it gets each end it reverses itself so we dont have to have somone running that one all the time. I will have to ask some more indepth questions on how it works if nobody else can help.
Mike

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Circutron makes an automatic reversing switch that mounts in the track and senses when a train goes over it. As the locomotive crosses over the switch, the circutry stops the train and restarts it in the other direction. It takes 2 of the switches to provide two reversers on a linear layout. The Circutron switch also allows you to set the length of time the train stops before it starts up again and I think you can set slow down and speed up rates with it as well.

 

[fsm1000]

It's a low paid worker in the other room as punishment LOL

 

[bsegel]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My friend does have a Lionel set up so he probably has the car wired to reverse the motor. What I need is something smaller for what I want to do, probably N Scale size. I'll look into the reverse switches that mount in the track and see what I can find.

Thanks again!

 

[Jim Krause]

Also look up www.miniatronics.com They sell an auto reversing unit.