Have seen a few threads recently mentioning ‘rerailers’. What are they, where do you use them and who makes them? Thanks in advance for any/all information offered.
Peter
A re-railers is a sectional track piece made by Atlas (and maybe others) that looks like a RR crossing, but will actually put wheels back on the rail as locos/cars move over it.
http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/Track/Trackphotos/2517.jpg
I don’t use them myself.
I’ve seen them come as the terminal-track in every trainset out there (well, in the past 15 years… my experience doesn’t go back much farther than that…)
another source (without buying a trainset) is any of the companies that make and/or sell rail (atlas, bachmann, kato, etc).
They’re usually nothing more than a piece of plastic that is attached to either a straight or curved section of track. It’s purpose is that if a car or loco derails and rolld over the rerailer, it will be placed back on the track. It is usually a “safety” device in hard to reach places, so that if something happens, you won’t be left with a number of cars stuck where they’re hard to reach. Though, they aren’t a substitute for good track - they’re so that you have an extra measure protection from derailments.
If you are taking locos and rolling stock off and on your track by hand, even semi-often, these save alot of time.
A good 30secs per rolling stock or loco without a re-railer, maybe 6 seconds with one (EDIT, 30s of course this depends on your slide of hand skills, I’m sure a “pro” can do it much faster). I use them to simulate automobile / RR crossings. I’ll admit they aren’t “life like” so if you’re more the proto type builder and want to mock what is reality, then you’d probably not want to use them, but if you’re less concerned with real world perfection, and take items on and off your rails, they’d save some time.
They are a “snap track” section that replaces a standad piece of track. They are supposed to re-rail derailed locos and cars that run over them. The can also assist in putting cars on a layout. The somewhat resemble a grade crossing so are somtimes used as such. Many modelers place them in inconspicuous places. Generally its better to fix the problem than to depend on a rerailer.
Thanks all for the feedback. I guess the answer is getting the track right first time!
Peter