Today I was running trains on the layout and to be a little different I thought I would run them in the opposite direction than I usually do. I ran them clockwise. For some reason, as always, it kinda bugged me to run them in the opposite direction than I usually do. I got to thinking back to all the layouts I have had in my life and I remembered that with every one of them I mostly ran the trains anticlockwise. Even with the larger layout I have now, where I sit in the middle of the room and they run all around me, essentially they still run anticlockwise. I am the kind of person that hates routine and loves change but for some reason this ones got me. My question is why does my brain care what direction my trains travel in and do you always run your trains in the same direction? Are you a clockwise or anticlockwise kinda guy???
I think I need a hobby.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
A point - to - point layout is the only cure.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
50% of the time the A line goes South and B goes North. But I do know where you are coming from. When I am in a store, I walk on the left side like I was driving.
I hate Rust
steemtraynA point - to - point layout is the only cure.
I thought of that. But then will my turntables turn clockwise or ?????.
In the northern hemisphere it's clockwise. Down Under trains prefer running counter-clockwise.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
cudaken 50% of the time the A line goes South and B goes North. But I do know where you are coming from. When I am in a store, I walk on the left side like I was driving.
When I was visiting my fiancee in England, they drove on the left side of the road. But you live in St Louis?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Never said I was a good driver!
Slip of the keyboard so to speak.
Not that left, your Military Left.
I have 2 ovals --one train in each direction
51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )
ME&O
UncBob I have 2 ovals --one train in each direction
The balanced approach.
Mine run clockwise but I used to run counter clockwise. I'm considering going back to the Nascar direction of counter clockwise
Springfield PA
On my layout we are a point to point-----hence I go out to the ends and back home----
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Hamltnblue Mine run clockwise but I used to run counter clockwise. I'm considering going back to the Nascar direction of counter clockwise
Left turns only?
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
When I was a teenager, my layout ran clockwise. But, that was because I had too many derailments when I went counter-clockwise. The grades were too steep. The track probably had kinks, too, and I didn't know how to tune up the turnout points to keep things on the track.
Now, I make sure everything runs both ways. Usually, I have one train on the passing siding going one way, and the train on the main line going the other, so it's just a matter of choosing which train I'm running to determine which direction around the layout they're going. The layout extension will have double-ended staging for the same reason, and a second reverse loop so I can easily have any train running in either direction, without awkward backing or, heaven forbid, resorting to the 5-fingered turntable.
You see, being able to run in both directions is a matter of pride now.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
...Or, try a figure 8.
BATMANAre you a clockwise or anticlockwise kinda guy???
Interesting question. I have a double track - one in each direction and a loop to loop mountain line. Not much help their either except! ! I usually run both loops counter-clockwise. I thought that it was because the spurs work slightly better that way. Perhaps there is some hidden deep psychological meaning there instead? Probably not.
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
My previous layout was a folded dogbone with a couple of cross-overs so trains ultimately ran both ways.
The current layout is incomplete so it's effectively point-to-point right now, but once it's all around the room, they'll still go in both directions -- gotta get the MTYs home somehow!
Craig
DMW
Think about it. If you're modeling a historical American prototype road, the odds are that it was built east-to-west (yes, yes, I know there are exceptions) because that is the way this country was settled. On any standard map east to west is right to left which, on an around-the-wall layout, would lead to construction from east to west and if operations follow construction the empire would operate initially so that the result would lead to ............counter-clockwise train operation.
Once up and going the obvious operation would be in both directions lest excess of motive power sit idle at one terminus, resulting in revenue loss. Zero sum game!
See, didn't need a psychologist, just a logician and historian. Oh, and bean counter.
vell, you zee, dis ist a problem dat hass existed zince railroads were first invented. it hass caused much consternazion amongst de orichinal railroad designers und enchineerz. avter mutch conziderazion dey dezided dat dey shouldt build der railroads point to point und not in a zirkle. dey make more money dat vay too.
und dat ist dat.
sigmund grizlump
I'm happy as long as my trains are running in a horizontal position and not a vertical plunge towards the deck. I think maybe you need to install a reversing loop.
My trains run either up or down, depending on what the timetable and that particular schedule is supposed to be doing. While my basic track layout is a folded dogbone, one side is hidden in the netherworld (the 99+% of Japan I don't model) and trains run both ways on visible track.
Of course, nothing simply orbits unless I'm just running a couple of trains to entertain mundane visitors. Normal operation calls for a train to leave staging, do its thing on the visible portion of the railroad and proceed to the other end - another (different) staging area. Trains with locomotives get turned end for end in the Netherworld, so catenary motors will reappear at the tunnel portal that has (virtual) overhead wire, while steam locos stay where the tunnels are shorter and the wire hasn't been hung yet. Diesels can run through - some do, some don't. (My main station is an engine change point.)
What's with, "Up and down?" Up is toward Tokyo, no matter how circuitous the route might be. Down is away from Tokyo. On my road, steam locos proceeding down have to climb a major grade - go figure!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - to the prototype's published schedules)
BATMANMy question is why does my brain care what direction my trains travel in and do you always run your trains in the same direction? Are you a clockwise or anticlockwise kinda guy???
No worries Mate, the answer to your dilema is simple-- you were an Aussie in a former life, and now you're pining for the land down' under. Maybe if you sprinkled some great white sharks and man-eating crocodiles around it would all come back to you? Or maybe licked a toad or two and went walkabout for a while... whatever works.
Cheers!
Dr. John
I'm bi-directional. I hope the neighbors don't find out.
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Frued has nothing on this....
wjstix
You plead the 5th, right?
I would bet if you went thru pictures in ads and such of boys operating a Lionel train set, the vast majority of the time they're operating counter-clockwise. I suspect is has something to do with the fact that when running an oval of track on a train that way, the engineer's side of the cab is closest to you when the train is closest to you. I wonder if in say Hornby ads in the UK you'd find trains running clockwise??
I know the Lionel layout I had as a teen was normally run counter-clockwise, although I did have to sometimes change direction because of one spur track that was a facing point, and the layout didn't have a run-around track. The layout was a twice-around, but with a cutoff so you could just run around the outside loop.
But my last layouts over the last 20 years or so have all been some variation of a point-to-loop so trains go both directions.
wjstixI suspect is has something to do with the fact that when running an oval of track on a train that way, the engineer's side of the cab is closest to you when the train is closest to you. I wonder if in say Hornby ads in the UK you'd find trains running clockwise??
I suspect is has something to do with the fact that when running an oval of track on a train that way, the engineer's side of the cab is closest to you when the train is closest to you. I wonder if in say Hornby ads in the UK you'd find trains running clockwise??
That's a good thought except for I always sat *inside* the loop!
John
SteamFreak In the northern hemisphere it's clockwise. Down Under trains prefer running counter-clockwise.
How novel, a train layout in a toilet.............. LOL.
The LM&E runs both directions, We are an equal direction service provider. No discrimination here.
Johnboy out.
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
jwhitten That's a good thought except for I always sat *inside* the loop! John
That could explain some of the problems a few of us have! LOL
Or maybe some people are just left "outside" the loop. ROFL
I crack me up............