BUILDINGRERAILERSTed ByrneOne aspect of railroading that a modelrailroad enthusiast does not want to copyis derailments, but they happen anyway.So, I want to talk about re-railers.This relates to Digital Control (sort of)because derailed wheels often causesparks that interfere with the digital signals,or can cause short circuits that tripcircuit breakers or blow fuses. Nobodywants a derailment, and besides, a re-railermakes it so easy to put cars on thetrack, just by rolling them back and forth,that you will kick yourself for not alwayshaving them.When I modeled in HO, I always hadseveral re-railers on my layout and theywere easy to purchase. But I don’t seethem very often on O <strong>Scale</strong> layouts andthey are not readily available in O <strong>Scale</strong>.Atlas Model Railroad Co. shows several intheir HO/N track catalog, and, in fact,includes one in their starter kit. But Atlas-O, which shares the same front door asthe “other” Atlas, does not offer one foreither O gauge or O <strong>Scale</strong>. That provokedme into building my own, since it is sosimple.Flaws in the rolling stock, such as tightor out-of-tolerance trucks, or tight orwrong-height couplers, often cause modelrailroad derailments. Derailments can alsobe caused by the trackage, such things astoo-sharp turns, out-of-gauge rails, unevenroadbed, or picked turnout points. Thesedefects need to be considered, but theyare a topic for another time.A derailment happens, or at least starts,when one wheel or one set of wheelscomes off of the rails. Typically the wheelson one side are off of the rail and bumpingalong on the outside of the ties, whilethe wheels on the other side are betweenthe rails, bumping along on the same ties.From there it only gets worse.50 • O <strong>Scale</strong> <strong>Trains</strong> - July/Aug ’04The drawing shows the top and sideview of the design of the re-railer. Thereare two essential parts. As a car goesthrough the re-railer, a sloping hard surfaceoutside the rails causes the outsidewheel to rise up so that its flange is levelwith the top of the rail. This ramp mustbutt up tightly against the outside of therail so that the wheel flange cannot slipdown between them.Simultaneously a pointed platformbetween the rails catches the insidewheel and moves it over, guiding it ontothe railhead, while the outside wheel issliding over its rail and dropping onto it.This inner surface must be spaced fromthe rails enough to allow flanges to runnormally through the gaps.Of course, the outside ramps need tobe on both sides of the track since thewheels could be off on either side, andthe entire re-railer needs to work in eitherdirection since the car could be movingin either direction.The lengths are shown in the figureand might be considered minimums. It iscritical that the total inner platform lengthis no longer than the level part of theouter ramps (the length without the endramps). That way, the inner platformdoesn’t start moving the inner wheel overuntil the outer wheel flange is highenough to roll over its rail. A longer outerplatform also raises the car before thecoupler gladhand can bump into theinner platform.The heights are critical, but I can’t tellyou what they are. The outer ramps mustbe just as high as the rail top, whateverrail height you use. Also, you can’t justfasten them to the ties without makingallowances for the foot of the rail, thespikes, and possibly rail joiners that maybe in the way.The inner platform must be highenough to catch the wheel but not sohigh that it catches coupler gladhands orwhatever else may be hanging low. Imade mine about 3 ⁄16” thick. It must benarrower than the rail spacing to allowwheel flanges to pass through smoothly. Ileft a 1 ⁄8” gap on each side of the platformfor this purpose. Strictly speaking, somematerial should be put into this gap toraise the wheel flange up to where thewheel tread is level with the rail, but Ifound this was not necessary. The pointededge should be smooth to encourage thewheel to move over rather than climbingonto it.I made both inner platforms and outerramps out of basswood, but a styrene surfacewould make them smoother andmore durable. Another option for thecenter is to use two short sections of rail.They just go a flange-width inside of themain rails, like guard rails, with their endsbent toward the center so they will pickup the errant wheel.There are some obvious ways to disguisea re-railer: as a grade crossing, as abridge, or as a station platform. A gradecrossing has a surface that comes up tothe top of the rail both outside the railsand between them, so the re-railer canjust be extended onto a roadway. Abridge has guard rails between the mainrails and often has a walkway outside therails. A pair of bridge sides makes the rerailerlook like a bridge. A re-railer, perhapssomewhat lengthened, makes aperfect station platform.Remember Murphy’s law: The derailmentwill happen at the most inconvenientplace on the layout, so put the firstre-railer there.◆
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