Rerailer track sections are a necessary evil. No matter how carefully laid the track, a car or two will inevitably jump the rails somewhere along the way. I was searching for a way to disguise rerailers. After all, a rerailer looks like a rerailer, no matter where you put it on the layout.
I cut out the center of a standard girder bridge. I inserted the rerailer and cross-braced it with some scale wood and studding. After some weathering, the piece blends in very nicely as part of the scenery…literally!
I disguised mine by - not having any. So far I have not had any derailments. The only place I would use rerailers in in any hidden trackage, especially in staging yards. In fact, at the entrance and exit to staging I’d probably put 2 or 3 rerailers in a row, just ot be sure it caught everything.
Well, I disagree with your premise. I have never used rerailer track sections on a layout, be it N scale, Ho scale, or On30. And I’ve never seen a need for them, either.
I was at my LHS today and noticed a RIX “railer” that is just for putting cars on the track. It was only a few bucks, but then I thought, “How often do I put cars on the layout for the first time?” So, it stayed on the rack.
I’d rather spend time making my trackwork solid so I don’t get derailments than figuring out ways to make re-railers look like part of the scenery.
yes; it is! When I had my HO layout; I had one, and found myself wondering how I ever got along without it[:)]. Now I’m laying track on my N scale layout and, even though I’m using flex track to hopefully eliminate derailing of trains, (less rail joints=less derailments) it was one of the first things I bought! Like rrinker says; it’s worth the 2 bucks.
I have good track and good tight soldered joints. That didn’t stop me from putting several rerailers in hard to get at areas in case there’s a derailment in any of those areas. A good thing too, as I had a small derailment in one of those areas. I simply kept the train moving, dragging the derailed car to the rerailer and click-click, it was rerailed and the train moved on as if nothing happened. Even with well laid track, there’s going to be a derailment sooner or later. There’s not and never will be a train that can’t derail for some reason or another. If you think that your track is so perfact that it can’t happen to you, you’re only trying to fool yourself.
You can lay the best track in the world and still have that one car that for whatever reason has a truck tighten up or a coupler that fails to allow horizontal movement and bamb, a derailment in a spot that is hard to get to. It will most likely happen when you are sharing the layout with guests to boot, embaressing. I may just put some in my hidden staging, but I have never in my life ever used one either. I do not like the looks.
For those of us who do not have the layout in a climate controlled room, there are new kinks every year to deal with. Solder or not. This is my second winter on the current layout and I am sure that eventually I will have all kinks worked out. So myself, I will put the pride asside and do what I think is best for my layout and operation enjoyment, that is derailment free.
I never have seen a prototype to match that big ol’ plastic rerailer, and they have derailments, too.
I figure, if a car goes off the track, I can just put it back on. My tunnels have access holes, so that’s no issue, although I imagine if i were going to use them, that’d be the place to put rerailer sections.
Yes, and don’t forget the access portal even if you put a derailer in the tunnel(s). I do it this way and it works like a charm. It keeps me from having to crawl under the layout to get at the access portal… No derailments in tunnels for me in a year… PERIOD! Other derailments, sure hahah usually to my stupidity/newbiness in some tracklaying transition or joint. I highly recommend a rerailer at EVERY tunnel… for me, that totals 4 rerailers in my whole layout. Not a big deal, but very useful.
Who’da thunked it? It’s just as plain as the nose on your face.
This should also work well on each helix level where there really should be built-in short tangent sections to relieve coupler tension. Great technique!
If you have solid track work, and all your wheels are in gauge, and couplers the proper height, you shouldn’t have derailments. If something DOES derail because a truck screw came out, or a coupler dropped, or a truck came apart, all the rerailers in the world aren’t going to get it back on the track. In fact if your coupler height is a little off, they can catch on rerailers and be more trouble. But we all adjust according to the kadee height gauge, right?
