Just out of curiosity - what is the purpose of a rerailer and when & where should it be put in place?
nj5smith
I use a pair of Atlas rerailers to put cars on the track when I put cars on my layout or test track.These have brass rail and need to be cleaned once in a while.
It does exactly what the name suggest - most of the time. It puts a derailed car or loco back on the rails as it passes by. They usually try to disguise them as grade crossings, but I’ve never seen a real grade crossing that looks quite like that, so I have none i any visible track on my layout. To help put cars on the track I use the Rix Rail-It (or whatever it’s exactly called - a portable plastic piece that you set on the rails and slide a car down and onto the rails. Handy inexpensive gadget). I will probably put rerailers all around in the hidden sections of my layout when I get that far, they aren’t 100% but good insurance and if it saves me from having to open up an access hatch, so much the better - btw don’t EVER build anything you can’t reach!
–Randy
They are handy in staging if you are building up trains using the 0-5-0 Human Hand. Many of us don’t have the luxury of enough yard/staging for all of our rolling stock (or, maybe we do have the luxury of so much rolling stock that we can’t fit it on our layout) so sometimes we take some cars off and put others on. Having a re-railer speeds up the process.
It’s probably a good idea to use re-railers anywhere you have hidden track to eliminate that derailing problem. I am building a fairly large layout and am putting them at the exit of all hidden tracks going thru my mountains. These are fairly long runs on curved track so the extra work is well worth is. The re-railers are within the mountain so they are out of view. However, as stated above you must still have access since these only help to minimize problems.
Good luck, Ron K.
There was a photo in an online magazine of a prototype rerailer that seemed to have the same configuration as a model one, but made of steel angles and channels. It was placed at the start of a bridge. (European, I think). Didn’t have the fake grade crossing following it.
Otherwise, there are prototype rerailers dangling from the sides of locomotives and tenders – steel castings that are used by train crews for minor derailments.
Model rerailers seem to have a configuration very similar to prototype guard rail installations, so the idea should work anywhere guard rails would be appropriate. Since the important thing is the geometry, mounded ballast or the natural slope of earth and pavement at a grade crossing can simultaneously form and disguise the side ramps.
As for access, John Armstrong operated the Canandaigua Southern for half a century with no access to one of the most critical turnouts on the railroad! The fascia was marked with a rectangle labeled, “Cut here in case of EXCRUCIATING trouble.” As far as I know, it never was cut.
do they come in code 83
Yes, Atlas makes them in packs of 3. We are using them at each end of all hidden tracks. The work at a min speed if you are a hot rodder they do not work at all. If you are a hot rodder you need a catch fene everplae that the traik can hit the floor at. We are using that on all the hidden tracks.
they are also used with cheap sets as a means of power getting to the tracks.