Hi Everyone, I am new to the board and have a quick question. I am beginning to ballast today for the first time. How do I handle my rerailers? Do I ballast some, none? What do you do when handling retailers. I know many of you do not have them. But, I do. What do you recommend? thank you, vince
Definitely weather them at minimum, or repaint. As is, the shiny black plastic stands out like a sore thumb.
I would only use rerailers in a fiddle yard or before/after a lift out section Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Rerailers and not necessary if you do a good job on your track and running equipment that meets standards. I have no rerailers and with good track and equipment I have very few derailments
I've seen in MRR magazine photos of layouts that use rerailers as road crossings. Still takes some weathering, but can be very effective.
On one of our club's first layouts we used rerailers as a grade crossing. We dullcoated them at least before installing them. As I mentioned above: do a good job on your track and run good equipment and you won't need rerailers.
Derailments happen so, one might think that with many or few derailments for any reasons - shoddy equipment, slipshod trackage, poor operations, or just the luck of the draw on a sunny day - a strategically placed rerailer or two would be beneficial. I must admit I envy the builder of the perfect layout with perfect equipment.
In any case, no ballast. The extra thickness between the rails will, at the very least, catch the tails hanging from your couplers. Retailers stand tall enough. You do't want anything near the rails that sits higher than the rails. The rerailer itself rises to that level. An especially thick coat of paint could cause problems, and something as thick as ballast will convert your rerailer into a derailer. And it will be difficult to keep the stuff out of that slot just inside the rail, where the wheel flanges go.
