Wire for a Wye

[ChadYelland]

Hi guys, I just want to confirm something. I'm progressing on my first layout and I have a yard and town at each end of my basement, and each town has a Wye for turning steamers around, I'm running DCC super empire builder which I installed near the middle of my layout so I get good power feeds to either end of my basement, this is where the wye's are, now I know I can buy auto reverse boards for my DCC, or use DB150 of which I would need 2 of them or have to run more wire.
To be simple can't I simply hook a DPDT switch to the points of the Wye turnout so the power changes to match the correct approach track with the throw of the switch?

 

[60103]

Yes.

Do you plan to switch one leg of the wye only or one whole side? Either way should work.

 

[TCH]

on my wye the approach tracks are wired as normal and I use a DPDT switch to change the direction of the tail track when the switch is thrown

as the train must stop to reverse direction and the turnout has to be thrown this works very well

 

[ChadYelland]

Should I Gap the rails at point A, B, or C? or does it matter to the functionality of it?

 

[TCH]

gap at A so the turnout and tail track are isolated from the rest.

other gaps at frogs as normal then feed the approach tracks past the frogs

 

[60103]

For your purposes, it doesn't matter. If you had sidings coming off the wye, I'd gap it so the gaps were beyond the frog or the siding switch.
The formal method would probably be as Trevor says.
Are you using switch machines or the DPDT switch to control the points? You can control the wye with just 3 pushbuttons.

 

[ChadYelland]

I plan Manual control as its near the edge of the layout, i was thinking a spring/wire from the toggle switch to the points so they allways correspond

 

[steamhead]

Hi...Only one of the legs of the "Y" need to be isolated and wired through your DPDT switch. I like your idea of tying the movement of the turnout points to the switch. I'll have to keep it mind...Might come in handy one of these days....

 

[ChadYelland]

I'm pretty sure that both legs have to be isolated, it would be pretty hard to reverse the polarity of the tail if its connected to the main line at any point.

 

[rogerw]

I agree chad I think you would have to isolate both legs of the main from the tail

 

[steamhead]

Hi...I think I see your problem. From your diagram, you suppose you only need to reverse the polarity of the tail track...Not so. You will need to change the polarity of the main AND one of the legs of the wye when entering or exiting the wye. The tail of the wye is just like a siding - the problem comes when you want to re-enter the main in the opposite direction from that in which you came in, which would be done through one of the 2 legs. There are two instances in which you would need to reverse polarity as per my suggestion:
1.- You enter the wye through the isolated leg, and need to set its polarity to that of the main-if necessary, you would change the polarity of that leg; once on the tail track (which as per my suggestion is part of the main) you would switch the polarity of the main to head in the opposite direction.
2. You enter through the un-isolated leg to the tail track, and exit through the isolated leg-you would reverse its polarity either upon entering or exiting the isolated leg, as required.

 

[ChadYelland]

I think you set the tail to the polarity of the track your entering the tail from,, then throw the switch- it will now match the polarity of the other track on which you leave the tail....

 

[TCH]

more on my earlier post.

I use a DPDT slide switch to manually control the turnout and change polarity

when entering the tail track from the left as you line up the turnout it will be the same polarity as the main.

upon leaving the tail if you wish to go right the turnout is changed therefore changing the polarity which now is the same as the main once again

this is how my wye is setup

its easy and it works

 

[steamhead]

I concurr with Trevor....Seems to me he's found that lost mind of his.... :mrgreen:
It is simpler than isolating one whole leg.

 

[Harold Cole]

Using the DB150 and isolating both legs at Point "A" you shouldn't have any Problems.

 

[Harold Cole]

You would only need 1 DB150

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Chad, your diagram in post 4 is spot on. Some answers here are wrong, probably assuming conditions you don't state. You mark one leg of the wye as a tail track. If that means it is a dead end and used for turning locos, then just gap and wire as you have drawn.

 

[Harold Cole]

Gary, i hate to be a pinhead,but i ran into the same problem almost 2 months ago with a friend of mine.We had to gap both legs and Using the DB150 everything Worked perfect.With only 1 leg gapped it went into short circuit mode.Chad as far as worring about power loss if you have enough buss and droppers you will be fine.Also you should only need 1 DB150 if you are using itn as Slave unit. Harold

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Harold, we may be misunderstanding each other. If your situation was identical to Chads, only one leg of a wye needs to be gapped. You mention having to gap both legs. A wye has three legs, so I wonder if we are speaking about the same thing. There needs to be 4 gaps to gap one leg of a wye, as in Chads drawing. If that leg has no other power feeds other than the one from the dpdt (or reverser unit) then it is a reverse block. The other two legs of the wye are, electrically, just a mainline with two facing turnouts. The only gaps needed between those turnouts are the same as in any situation. Perhaps that is what our difference is. I see Chads drawing does not show gaps there. A single gap located anywhere in the rail between the two mainline turnout frogs in needed.

Regarding the DB150, or use of a reversing module, one would work for both ends with the understanding only one end could be used at the same time, wheels crossing gaps at both ends at the same time will cause a short. But for this situation, I like the dpdt switch.

 

[Harold Cole]

Gary,I apoligize,i see what you are talking about.I thought that what you were saying was only one rail had to be seperated.My friend was confused in what was said also.The Diagram at the "A" point is perfect and the DPDT switch will work out just fine,in the future if he adds a rev unit or DB150 everything is there for the hooking up without a flaw. Harold Cole