Hi Hess
"Can you reverse into a terminus?" The answer is YES BUT:
Reversing a train is the simplest thing in digital but in absence of a slider switch, the train will not stop BEFORE the signal.

Reversing with a software like Rocrail, then THERE IS STRICTLY NOTHING TO DO". You change the train's direction and because it does not use insulated stop zones for signals so it stops at the right spot every time. The train becomes a shuttle train w/o doing anything.

Reversing trains like they do in real terminus stations: uncouple the cars, have them coupled and pulled away by a shunting loco.

An alternative to the previous real-life operation is to uncouple the cars before the loco is fully against the buffer and an escape switch, allows the loco to be removed (return to the depot). This operation belongs to steam era while today in my favourite Saint Lazare station in Paris (24 platform tracks 91 million passengers per year) all trains are now reversible for shuttle operation

Here is (for fun) a video of this station in 1957 when steam was ruling the tracks
If you wish to skip the historical part, jump to 3:46 into the video


Here is what it looks like more recently in the yard just before the station: all electric, all computerized, all shuttle trains.

Cheers
Jean

As usual, there is a prototypical example for (almost) everything. Recently at the Hamburg-Altona terminus in Germany, the Urlaubs-Express (UEX) mototrain - passenger cars and autoracks - coming from the coach yard is backed into the stub siding by the road engine.

No shunter and neither uncoupling nor coupling involved.

Sydney Central Station has a mix of both, but has 15 terminus lines. It did have up to 19 terminus lines.


(2012 photo from web)

The Indian Pacific train is split in two halves & uses two lines to the right of the photo, platforms 1, 2 or 3.

'As of 2020 , the weekly service consists of up to 25 carriages and two motorail wagons. Because of its length, the train is split in two when stabled at Sydney Central station.'

'The current 15 Sydney Terminal platforms run perpendicular to the main station concourse and all are dead ended with the buffer stop. They are arranged as seven double platforms and one single platform, each with an awning, servicing a total of 15 tracks. Platforms 1–3 are for country and interstate services, while the remainder are for interurban services.'

'Platforms 1–10 have a centre run-round track, which was for locomotive-hauled trains. It enabled the locomotive to uncouple from its train and either depart or re-couple on the other end to pull the train to the next destination. There was extreme pressure on the speed to ready a train for the next destination due to the lack of platform space and a steady growth of rail patronage. These centre lines are now used for storage of electric rail car sets in off peak times. The platforms feature long timber-framed canopies over some of the platforms (incorporating Howe trusses). Timber was used in lieu of steel because of the high cost at the time of importing steel.'

https://en.m.wikipedia.o..._railway_station,_Sydney

thanks toosmall been tring to fit the hole train onto small sation did not think about spliting train

Dresden has an interesting mix of through and terminal tracks in the station. Other cities like Zurich or Stuttgart (to name a few) have underground through tracks beneath the so called Terminus Station at ground level. If you want to do a classic terminus, install uncoupler tracks about 30 cm from the end of each track, so that you can uncouple the locomotive and move it forward and then have another locomotive connect to the train at the other end and pull it out of the station

Regards

Mike C

Further to my post #4 about a train originating there, more current info about Hamburg-Altona passenger terminal shunting of "conventional" loco-hauled passenger trains (without push-pull cab coaches at the far end) upon arrival:


On track #5
An electric loco pulls a Nightjet (purely passenger cars) up to the buffer stop. After unloading the passengers, the road engine backs the train into the storage yard. No shunter involved, no uncoupling or coupling.

On track #6
A RDC mototrain is backed by the road engine into the station, with "leading" autoracks (motor vehicles already facing towards unloading ramp) being placed in front of the buffer stops, which double as unloading ramp. After unloading the motor vehicles and passengers, the road engine pulls the train into the storage yard. No shunter involved, no uncoupling or coupling.

On track #5
After the Nighjet disappeared, an electric loco pulls an ÖBB mototrain to the buffer stop. Trailing autoracks are uncoupled and picked up by a DB diesel shunter.

most use full

Ulrich Budde, the German godfather of "Bundesbahnzeit", explains the procedure of backing "traditonal" passenger trains (i.e., not equpipped with a push-pull control car at the rear end) into the Hamburg-Altona terminus in his report on the Hamburg-Eidelstedt ICE yard visit in May 1991:

"At this point, a brief explanation of the operating procedure in Altona for those not familiar with Hamburg; trains terminating at the Altona terminus are usually pushed into Langenfelde layover yard by the road locomotive after all passengers have disembarked. The last carriage, now the front of the train, is manned by shunting crew staff observing the pushed train from the rear vestibule and giving the driver the necessary driving instructions by radio. A simple, mobile hand valve connected to the brake hose of the last wagon enables him to operate the brakes directly himself. The same procedure is carried out in the opposite direction for trains starting in Altona, as here for the IC with 103 240.

Source: https://bundesbahnzeit.de/seite.php?id=757

Scroll down to image #23 with the caption: "A short distance along the line and finally I was exactly where I wanted to go. Directly opposite the Diebsteich S-Bahn station (in the background) we see 103 240, which backing the coaches for the IC639(?) "Kommodore" into Altona station."

P.S.: Also images 26, 28, 33, 37, 38, 40, 42, 46, 49, 52, 54, 55 & 56 document this procedure of the road engine pushing an empty passenger train (without push-pull control car at the rear end) either into the layover yard or the terminus.