LGB Fully automated alternating station circuit wiring

A long while ago I built a simple garden layout like this. There were three sidings, and two trains. One train would leave its siding, make a complete loop via the empty middle siding, then return to its own. Then the other would do the same, in the opposite direction. It was all done (pre DCC) with regular MPL turnouts and sensors. There was one LGB "relay" (just a point motor with the switch block, not attached to a point) that controlled direction. I could try to reproduce the wiring if anyone is interested.
 
john493 said:
A long while ago I built a simple garden layout like this. There were three sidings, and two trains. One train would leave its siding, make a complete loop via the empty middle siding, then return to its own. Then the other would do the same, in the opposite direction. It was all done (pre DCC) with regular MPL turnouts and sensors. There was one LGB "relay" (just a point motor with the switch block, not attached to a point) that controlled direction. I could try to reproduce the wiring if anyone is interested.
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Yes please, tried something some time back with EPL, managed to get 3 trains working with Station stops ok but never managed to understand how I could relate it to a reverse and change passing loop situation.
 
I used a separate, stand-alone relay (not attached to points) for track direction. Apart from that, everything was done by contacts attached to the relays of the 4 points involved, which in turn were operated by LGB magnetic train detectors.
 
john493 said:
I used a separate, stand-alone relay (not attached to points) for track direction. Apart from that, everything was done by contacts attached to the relays of the 4 points involved, which in turn were operated by LGB magnetic train detectors.
Click to expand...
Understand that I think, I assume that an LGB Switch attachment can be used as a relay to change the polarity. My mind had difficulty working out where the track contact would be to throw it and how it would be disabled (latched) till required again to reverse the polarity. I feel that location location location will be relevent for the actuator?
 
Thinking about it some more, with just two trains and a simple loop, it's very easy, and you only need two detectors, one at the entrance to the isolated section at the departure end of each of the two sidings. Each train flips both points for the other train to run. You attach contacts to one of the points that reverse the polarity to the whole layout, and feed the isolated sections via diodes so they are only fed when the polarity is right for the train.
 
The one that I saw in depesh had 2 loops and 3 trains so a little trickier, but perhaps the diodes are part of the solution. But certainly each of the bits between the loops needs a reversal with 2 trains going one way and the other the other way. Said twas not easy! My vid in an earlier post shows the layout only all the trains going the same way, want one to go the other way.
 
So I set it up and the only problem I have is that it when the first train goes on track 2 it switches the track to track 1 and stops but when the second train goes on track 1 it does switch the track and it also doesn’t stop. Please tell me what to do to fix the problem.
 
Lgb train said:
So I set it up and the only problem I have is that it when the first train goes on track 2 it switches the track to track 1 and stops but when the second train goes on track 1 it does switch the track and it also doesn’t stop. Please tell me what to do to fix the problem.
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If the wrong track is still powered, then I would guess you haven't moved the relay to the desired position. I would suggest checking if you've connected to the wrong terminal on the reed switch or if your loco is not triggering the reed switch, or if the reed switch is damaged. If you use a magnet to manually trigger the reed switch, does it move the relay?
 
Lgb train said:
So I set it up and the only problem I have is that it when the first train goes on track 2 it switches the track to track 1 and stops but when the second train goes on track 1 it does switch the track and it also doesn’t stop. Please tell me what to do to fix the problem.
Click to expand...
Have you got a stop point on track 1? Each track needs a stop point and this would change to stop train running to start train previously stopped. The trigger to change to point also needs to be at the location just before where the train stops so that the full train is in the track.

A fair bit of fiddling and moving around of actuators is required to get things working right, one of the great benefits of the EPL system as you can prototype changes many times till things work as you wish.
 
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