I’m laying my first track and have a couple of questions about rerailers.
1, Where is the best place for them
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How many to use.
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They look like they would make good grade crossings. Is this a good idea.
Thanks for you help and it is HO.
Bob
I put mine (Atlas code 83) after turnouts (just in case there’s a problem) and curves which tend to be the most likely places for a derailment. I’ve also got a Walthers double crossover and have one in front and behind both sides of it.
After turnouts is a good place if you can fit them into the scenery. To my eye they don’t look awfully realistic for crossings but good enough sometimes. I have used a few in this fashion and paritally camoflaged others. I use one about every 12 to 15 feet.
Use plenty of extras in hidden staging areas for obvious reasons.
Karl
If you have a drop-down leaf, or a lift-up section, it would be a good idea to place one on either side of the joints to help if the alignment isn’t always perfect, or creeps off over time.
Have fun… George
My relatively few commercially-manufactured rerailers are all mounted in hidden staging, at places where a train is either just leaving a yard throat or is just about to enter one. In those places their unrealistic appearance is not an eyesore.
It is possible to copy the geometry of a rerailer at visible grade crossings, using properly bent guard rails (don’t let the tips touch!) with ground goop ‘dirt’ road shoulders and your choice of between-the-rails and outside-the-rails road surface, thereby securing the result without sacrificing appearance.
Another good place for derailers, either commercial or home brew, is just inside the portals of tunnels - or extending just outside same. One bridge-tunnel combination I once examined (on out-of-service track) had a continuous bridge-style guardrail from the open-air bridge abutment to the far portal of the rather long, S-curved tunnel. Just outside the tunnel at the bridge end, the tracks were crossed by a narrow dirt road and the guardrails were bent close to the running rails in classic rerailer configuration - though I doubt that the railroad builders had that result in mind.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I think they’re a cop-out. There’s no excuse for not fixing the trackwork to begin with, so that it doesn’t cause derailments. Besides, do you suppose Murphy is going to derail your cars where you’ve planned for it?
I use a portable Rix rerailer to get difficult engines on track the first time, or a whole string of cars if I’m in a hurry. I suppose if I had a dedicated off-layout test track, then I’d have a re-railer in that, too, for convenience.
Another take,
I have 300’ of staging and hidden track. Code 100 flex, most has been in for about 3 years now. I run a lot. The re-railers have been pretty much un-necessary in preventing derailments.
I used rerailers all over my hidden staging as per the common wisdom: cheap derailment insurance. During the three years the track has been down a most annoying development has come to light: The rerailers are are hard to keep clean. This has caused a few headaches in otherwise perfect trackwork. They haven’t saved any derailments, but they have caused conductivity problems because they don’t clean up well… Nothing like a stalled train buried in hidden staging. Old brass and small steam are most problematic.
I use draggers and the Tony’s cmx car to clean track. The level of the plastic in the re-railers somehow makes it harder for these cars to clean them. If I had it to do again, no rerailers.
Your mileage may vary,
Guy
Thank each and every one who resonded and answered my question. I’ll sleep on the suggestions and maybe hit a happy medium if I can find one.
Bob
I just cut out some track to put two rerailers in place[(-D] and right in front where everyone can see!
No- I think they look “odd” and unrealistic. BUT my son is starting to enjoy operating the trains with me, and he still has a devil of a time getting a car onto the track properly. giving up a bit of “realism” to add to his enjoyment of actually operating with the old man is well worth it to me. he can put on his favorite cars in no time now.
(P.S. I tried to make a decent crossing out of strip balsa, and it looked like @@it) so I put in the atlas)
I’ve rerailers at the entrance / exit of my staging yard. (But they’re not really necessary)
Wolfgang