I am working on my first N scale layout from one of the Atlas track plan books. It wants me to put 3 rerailers on the yard tracks as they leave the yard to the main line. Do I need them??? Plan is N-11
Thanks to those who take the time to help!!!
I only use rerailers in my hidden staging areas. They are placed in such a manner that the rerailers are the last piece of track that the ‘staged’ trains roll over right before entering the layout. They are a nice feature to have right before your trains enter the main line. My only objection with them is their appearance and that is why mine are placed in the hidden areas that visitors can’t easily see. They can certainly be beneficial, it is just a matter of personal preference. Good luck, Wayne
Yes I strategically placed a few rerailers around my layout. They are at the back, and one of them I disguised as a road crossing.
I don’t think you need rerailers in the yard though, unless it’s used for staging.
The only place I use rerailers is in my hidden staging…
Nick
in answer to your question, no i don’t use them. not to brag, but i operate my layout almost every day and i have about one derailment a month. if you pay careful attention to your track work and wheels you might be lucky as i am. i am into HO so i don’t know how well N stays on the track. i guess a few rerailers at strategic points around the layout wouldn’t hurt anything but (knock on wood) i haven’t needed them.
grizlump
I have no built-in re-railers on my layout. I do have a couple of portable ones that I use for putting engines and cars on to the layout after removing them for maintenance or era-swapping.
If you need re-railers on your track, you really need to look at why you need them. Perfect trackwork should be a realistic goal, not just a dream.
Yes! I use them in all tunnels and have a couple spotted in for easy access for articulateds and such, I just disguise them as road crossings. At a certain point in life ease of usage outweighs other considerations. Also, there “are” other things to consider besides track work, I use Atlas code 83 and Peco switches and am very careful with the track work but, there are also such things as malfunctioning trucks and or malfunctoning couplers. It may only happen once a year but that is once to often to suit me.
Nothing as much fun as having a derailment happen in the middle of a long tunnel then have the offending car come completely uncoupled from the train as you try to extract it.
If I had it to do again I would have placed one just inside the tunnel entrances on every tunnel where they can’t be seen.
Again, Murphy’s Law, and everybody knows…Murphy was an optomist!!
Mark
Here’s my rerailer in my fiddle yard.
Wolfgang
I have a number of them around the layout [N scale] wherever a road crosses the tracks. I cut the ramps off of standard Atlas rerailers, since that is the distracting feature.
I am going to guess the reason they show the rerailers in the plan is because it for people getting started in the hobby.They have not fine tuned there rolling stock and track laying skills yet.
I no longer install any when I lay new track. I use to install them right after turnouts because if I where to have a problem, that where it was going to be.
Cuda Ken
I use them only on two of my five staging yards at the throat because the staging yard begins under benchwork. I handlay a lot of my track and the RTR rerailers don’t work for me.
Bob
Ideally, in a perfect world, with perfect trackwork and a respect for SMPH, rerailers would not be necessary.
WHile my main layout is HO {which does have rerailers on the back side just in case and in a tunnel}, I do have N scale on the under-the-xmas-table-top-tree layout to run my Nscale stuff as well as HO there. There are rereailers there used as road crossings simply because N scale is SO much harder to rerail than my HO stuff. We also use a blue “Rix slide railer” to rail the N scale stuff to begin with when we set it up as we are not always adept at railing the cars and locos on the N scale tracks anymore {he, he, aging {maybe?} is setting in}.
I find it no disgrace to have rerailers.
Just my opinions. Others may differ. Your results may vary. Limit one per customer.
On several large, modular,traveling layouts that I have seen, they have used rerailers where their enterance gates are, just to double check the alignment method they used for the gate.
In reality the wood is usually more gray than brown, unless it was a newly laid crossing with freshly creasoted wood. Some color more like driftwood comes to mind for older, well worn crossings.
Good luck,
Yes.
Rich
I have one rerailer installed in currently-operable trackage. It was the first piece of permanent track I laid on this layout.
In close to four years of regular (5-7 days per week) operation it has yet to rerail a single wheel. I HAVE used it to get rolling stock on the rails when delivered by the giant skyhook - but not since the casssette dock became operational. The giant skyhook no longer delivers rolling stock to the layout.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
…and planning to use them in the helix.
Yes. All of my staging yards have them.
Rerailers can be usefull for putting cars onto the layout. I use them on my storage tracks for that purpose, but on the layout itself I use a Kato 2-502 rerailer ramp so there isn’t a permanent rerailer track on the layout.
I have one on the Yuba River Sub in a particularly inaccessable area just for safety’s sake, it’s at the bottom of a 2% grade and in the middle of a 36" radius curve. That particular area just ‘looked’ troublesome while I was building the layout, and I figured, better safe than sorry. So far, after 8 years of running, it’s never had to really earn its keep, but I’ll be honest, I feel better with it there.
Oh yah, it’s disguised as a country road crossing, LOL!
Tom [:)]
Ingenious Wolfgang! [tup]