O gauge re-railers

This "guy" and my 3 siblings remember a re-railer on Dad's large early 1950s Lionel postwar layout.  We each got a quarter of his trains when he died.  None of us ever found the re-railer.  I'm the only one with a layout now and have been looking for an O re-railer for 25 or 30 years.  Daddy either custom made one or found a custom made re-railer that got lost.

There is a track rerailer topic that discusses this rerailer that is still listed.   I put 2 together on a 10" length of track and they just didn't do the job.

If I had a re-railer like above it would never be near where derailment occurred.  My portable, usable every where re-railer is my right hand and eyes doing the job.

Charlie

My de-railed wagons and passenger cars don't get a chance to "re-rail" themselves on any track apparatus (where-ever it is located) as the 3amp circuit breaker pops instantly, and everything comes to a grinding halt.

Gotta do as Choo Choo Charlie says....."Hand of God" and a good pair of eyes!!!

Peter.....Buco Australia.

Members of my club have long wished that there were re-railers available for Gargraves track.  We have a fairly long tunnel at our Kennywood Christmas setup, and Murphy's Law being what it is, the minor derailments (the ones that don't short the track immediately) often decide to become major derailments inside the tunnel.

I've seen 3D printed re-railers for tubular track.  Has anyone done one for Gargraves, or other track systems for that matter?

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

Members of my club have long wished that there were re-railers available for Gargraves track.  We have a fairly long tunnel at our Kennywood Christmas setup, and Murphy's Law being what it is, the minor derailments (the ones that don't short the track immediately) often decide to become major derailments inside the tunnel.

I've seen 3D printed re-railers for tubular track.  Has anyone done one for Gargraves, or other track systems for that matter?

Andy

Shouldn't be that hard to print a re-railer for Gargraves. This has been on my list of things to make. I'm going to get on it and report back when I have something that might work.

Re-railers work for two rail track and are frequently needed for light wheels with small, scale flanges.

Re-railers do not work with three rail track because the wheels will almost always cause a short between an outside rail and the center rail. A re-railer is less frequently needed for wheels with heavier, larger flanges.

I find that there are generally only four causes of derailments and it is easier to deal with those problems than to worry about re-railing:

1. Derailments always occur in one location... you should inspect the track and make any necessary adjustments.
2. Derailments always occur with one car or engine... you should inspect the car or engine and make any necessary adjustments.
3. Derailments always occur from an outside force (such as a grandchild)... you should inspect the outside force and make any necessary adjustments (in the case of grandchildren, you should try really hard not to comment on how cute they are).
4. Derailments always occur when the train is going too fast into a sharp turn... obviously you should slow the train for those curves. Less obviously you could look into curve easements. I simulate easements with FasTrack using a section each of O84. O72, and O60 going into an O48 curve. This only adds a few inches to the width and I run at full speed through the curve both forwards and reverse.

I seldom have a derailment and I don't worry about re-railing.

(Back in the day I did use a re-railer in HO with a small amount of success.)

I have never seen a re-railer for 3-rail O scale track. The flanges on 3-rail O scale wheels are large enough that a re-railer shouldn't be necessary. I have noticed that on Fastrack, the very few times a car's wheels needed re-railing, when the train runs through a switch, the wheels re-rail.