Ho scale railers - DIY

[Ericsauto]

Well that's good to know then. I would have thought they wouldn't work so well. But if they do, then not only am I glad I'm wrong, I may have to even try them myself!

I would have agreed with you until I installed them and saw the benefit. Really eliminated the derail embarrassment when showing the layout.

 

[Toolbelt]

I have a couple of Atlas re-railers on my small layout and often they accomplish nothing other than my anticipation of hoping that they'll re-rail an errant set of wheels, or perhaps they have limitations?

 

[Mixed Freight]

I would have agreed with you until I installed them and saw the benefit. Really eliminated the derail embarrassment when showing the layout.

Yeah, I think I failed to take into account the "stringline" effect in my original thoughts. In other words, a locomotive pulling a line of cars down a straight track can be a pretty powerful force. Any car not conforming to the straight line pulling force (such as a derailed car) is going to want to self-correct back into a straight line as soon as possible. And giving it some help with your re-railer is definitely an incentive to get back into the straight line in order to resume back to the least rolling resistance.

 

[Mixed Freight]

I have a couple of Atlas re-railers on my small layout and often they accomplish nothing other than my anticipation of hoping that they'll re-rail an errant set of wheels, or perhaps they have limitations?

Well, come to think of it, I've had that problem myself in the past, but never gave it much thought to figure out why. So, in thinking about it for a little bit, a couple of things come to mind..........

Are the cars properly weighted? Something just seems to say that if they're too light, they're not always going to work good on re-railers.

How are the wheel gauges and rail gauges? Having everything properly gauged goes a long ways towards avoiding derailment opportunities to start with.

Are the bolster screws slightly loose, in order to give the trucks a more than just rotational play? This would allow either side or front and back of the truck to go up or down a little bit, in order to try and ride back into the rails at the re-railer sections.

Just a few guesses at this point, perhaps others could chime in their thoughts and experiences.

 

[Toolbelt]

Well, come to think of it, I've had that problem myself in the past, but never gave it much thought to figure out why. So, in thinking about it for a little bit, a couple of things come to mind..........

Are the cars properly weighted? Something just seems to say that if they're too light, they're not always going to work good on re-railers.

How are the wheel gauges and rail gauges? Having everything properly gauged goes a long ways towards avoiding derailment opportunities to start with.

Are the bolster screws slightly loose, in order to give the trucks a more than just rotational play? This would allow either side or front and back of the truck to go up or down a little bit, in order to try and ride back into the rails at the re-railer sections.

Just a few guesses at this point, perhaps others could chime in their thoughts and experiences.

One of the first things I did upon recently returning to the hobby was to bring my rolling stock up to NMRA standards as far as metal wheels, Kadee's and weighting. The existing layout is almost 40 years old and the track is far from perfect, but useable. My comment was more directed to the re-railer function even when just rolling a single car through it. They don't seem to re-rail about 40% of the time. I'll be completely replacing the layout so not worrying about it too much. Hoping they may have tweaked the design slightly since these Atlas's were made in the mid-80's?

 

[Ericsauto]

One of the first things I did upon recently returning to the hobby was to bring my rolling stock up to NMRA standards as far as metal wheels, Kadee's and weighting. The existing layout is almost 40 years old and the track is far from perfect, but useable. My comment was more directed to the re-railer function even when just rolling a single car through it. They don't seem to re-rail about 40% of the time. I'll be completely replacing the layout so not worrying about it too much. Hoping they may have tweaked the design slightly since these Atlas's were made in the mid-80's?

Great points about proper weight and standards. I believe I did a pretty accurate job laying down my Peco code 83 track. It's a very precise track that I feel is worth the extra price. Weighting the cars to the proper standards makes a huge difference. I have a lot of passenger cars and they are quirky even on high-quality tracks. Darn things have their own mind sometimes. This is where these railers work best for me. With DCC and lighted passenger cars, one little misstep of a wheel can cause a short. With these, I can run the trains as long as I want with a low percentage of wheel skips. It just makes it more enjoyable as people and grandchildren are watching the trains run.
Hopefully, all these comments help someone who may just be entering this hobby and take a bit of frustration out of it.

 

[Ericsauto]

So I uploaded some test videos. The only on that did not retail properly was when I had 3 cars in a row off the rails. The first one did not get up on the rail all the way, but the other two did. Just to show they are not perfect but work pretty well.

 

[Kentuckyjed]