Most of what I know about wiring was gleaned many years ago from careful study of the works of Cyril Freezer, especially the iconic 60 Plans for Small Railways, which I pretty much wore out as an early teenager. Reverse loops were tricky, necessitating something called a DPDT switch, otherwise short circuits would occur, the universe implode - you get the picture.
As far as I knew, this was still the case today - even the new fangled DCC seemed to struggle - I notice Bachmann make a special reverse loop module for their Easy Command line. Not a massive problem when you're modelling a railway perhaps, reverse loops being quite rare beasts, but tramways are a different matter. Most of my favourites, the Silesian system I 've discussed previously for instance, have a fair number, so naturally I wanted one too. Whatever CJ said.
Googling around at the weekend for information about Tomix insulated railjoiners, I came across a message on the excellent Tomix and Tomytec model railway group on Yahoo, by Nick Kibre (message 872 if you're interested) that said the Tomix turnouts were power routing and no extra railgaps were required for a reverse loop.
To be honest, I doubted it would work - it went directly against the world according to Freezer, but I dutifully set up a quick test rig in the kitchen, using my 6 volt battery controller so that the consequences wouldn't be too dire when the whole thing blew up... Only to find it worked. Perfectly.
Thankyou Nick Kibre and thankyou Tomix!
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