I am just starting to put together a medium size layout, not huge, but has a number of turns and an overpass. I installed a re-railer at each point where the train would come out of a bend. Why is it that not a single one of the darn Bachmann re-railers will put a car, engine or tender back on the track? I thought that was what they were suppose to do! My train can do 2 laps going over 7 re-railers per lap and not fix the problem once. This is fairly consistant (not the de-railing, but when it does happen, the re-railing).
I could see it if it happened at one re-railer every time and the others worked, but this happens at all of them pretty much all the time. Half of the time the train is coming out of a turn, and the other half just before entering a turn. Doesn't matter, same results. Not running fast either, in fact, pretty darn slow.
These were not cheap, and I feel like I kind of got shafted by Bachmann.
rb,
You did not get shafted. You may want to check your wheels to see if they are gauged correctly or not enough weight to your rolling stock. I have several re-railer's on my layout and all work properly when needed.
Derailment's can and will occur, but you sound like your's are frequent. Check your track also to make sure it is properly secured to your table unless you are using it on the floor which is not a great idea.
Jerry
They don't happen that often, but when they do, they never correct themselves. I am using new Bachmann Nickel Silver track, it is assembled correctly, 3 Bachmann diesel engines and one Rivarossi steam 4-6-4 engine. One loop has an incline and the other track is flat. Same problems on both tracks.
Another problem may be speed of the train going over the railer's. Too fast it may just be gliding over the railer.
I have had issues with coupler length's not letting car's negotiate the tighter radius to rail joiners not properly attached.
Re- railer's are great for adding loco's or rolling stock, but also can help with occasional derail. I would first look at your track work (no matter how good it looks) and check all joiner's are connected to the rail not over or under it. Check your plastic spikes made on the roadbed to make sure rail is still in spike's. You did not mention if you have turnout's.
An NMRA gauge will help you make sure if everything is in spec.
Jerry
I think we are going off on a tangent. I am not questioning "why" the car de-railed. The trains are always going slow over the re-railers. All the track is new Bachmann EZ track with attached roadbed. No spikes. All joints are new and correct. The re-railers are just not putting the cars or engines back on the track, and I can't figure out why.
Well we are not going off on anything. I was in your shoes not to long ago and experienced some of the same problems.
Your track may be new but installation of them is critical. Yes your track has spikes,although they are plastic and molded into the ties that is what holds your rails on. If some should be broken then your rails could be out of gauge.
Shoot a video of your train as it goes over the re-railer ( if possible) and watch it back in slo-motion. Another member posted this info and it really works to solve hard to see problems. Post here and other's may help too.
Just trying to help you get thru this as other's have helped me.
Jerry
you asked about a problem with the rerailers. jerry was not going off on a tangent, you were simply asking the wrong question. the question you should be asking is why are my trains derailing in the first place, reraileres at best cure the symptom but not the problem.
some questions:
do your trains derail at the same spot every time or are the derailemnts at random locations? is there more than one spot where they consistently come off the track?
are the derailments affecting certain cars or locomotives more than others? is so, which ones? do the trucks swivel freely? are the coupler pins low enough to snag something between the rails?
are there track switches in the area immediately before the derailments? is the track level from side to side in this area, or is there a twist in the track?
the answers to all of these questions can point you toward solving the problem once and for all. put another way, prpoperly laid track running properly adjusted trains does not need rerailers.
Come on guys, give me a break here. This has nothing to do with derailing. Only about why it is not re-railing. I just took a gondola, manually derailed it ever so slightly, very slowly pushed it over the re-railer and the single wheel of the forward truck entered the re-railer, slowly walked right up onto the platform, rolled right across the platform and dropped right off the other side. It was suppose to go back onto the track and it doesn't.
I have 2 film clips of this but I don't know how to post them to this site.
Rerailing would not be an issue if the car did not derail in the first place.
From what you describe, I would suspect there is either a problem with gauge (either the car or the track), or with a bind in the truck pivot.
Gauge problems in the track are not unknown. If you have a track gauge, like that on a MT coupler check gauge , you can run the gauge around the curve and touch the spike heads with superglue to hold it in the correct gauge. You can also use the same tool to check wheel gauge (spacing on axle).
I have one EZ Track rerailer where the curve in the track on the rerailing section itself was too tight. I don't know of a fix for that.
Swing the truck on its pivot by hand and feel for places where the coupler or other parts may be catching on the car frame.
There isn't much that can go wrong with a rerailer, aside from tight gauge. This is why your problem almost has to be due to something else. The first thing to do is determine if the problem happens only to the same car, and if it is only with the same end of that car.
From what you describe, it sound like the car is entering the rerailer in a derailed condition. A car can derail and be dragged quite some distance, even with cars on both ends. Try stopping your train at intervals before the derailer and try to determine where the derailment is actually happening. Something will be wrong with the track at that location. Check you track joints, too, to be sure none of your rail joiners have been overidden.
I have a fairly large N-scale railroad, built with EZ-track 11 3/4" curves and EZ-Track switches. My railroad is passenger-oriented, with full scale length passenger cars and truck-mounted couplers. So I have to pay special attention to thse things, and sometimes have to do a bit of tweaking to the cars to make them perform well. I have a switch that a loco (a Kato PA-1) would always derail on, but only in one direction.
After cussing the switch, I found the loco was actually derailing on the curve about three feet before getting to the curve. When I corrected the gauge in the track, the derailments stopped.
Les
I appologize if I sound like I am getting frustrated, but I am.
Desertdweller: "Rerailing would not be an issue if the car did not derail in the first place." ..... How many times do I need to say that right now I don't care why it is de-railing, only why it is not RE-RAILING. De-railings will happen to the best of setups occasionally.
Desertdweller: "From what you describe, it sound like the car is entering the rerailer in a derailed condition." ...... Of course it is. If it was not de-railed, I wouldn't need to re-rail it!
If my problem was that the turn signals in my car were not turning off after I made the turn, the solution would not be to look at why I turned them on in the first place. Why they may be de-railing is a seperate issue. I only want to know right now why the re-railer is not re-railing.
Again, there is nothing on the track. No rubber, no plastic, no spikes, no dirt and no bird droppings. There is no gauge problems unless Bachmann made all 9 of them wrong. They are not in turns. These are not atlas flex tracks on cork roadbed, they are new pre-formed Bachmann re-railers, already made, not modofied, not worn out. I had nothing to do with their design, concept or construction. I bought them, installed them and would now just like to use them. It does this with box cars, tank cars, gondolas, flat cars and even the crane. I did about a half hour's worth of testing. I have found that if the lead wheel of the truck is off the track, it will NOT re-rail. If it is the rear wheel of the truck, sometimes it does re-rail, bit not always. Does that shed any light on things. The trucks are not binding and it doesn't matter if the car has a body mounted or truck mounted coupler. It will not re-rail any of them if the front wheel on the truck is off the track. Again, I have a video, but do not know how to load it on this forum. Right now they are about as usefull as an automobile crossing ramp. I'm ready to just rip every one of them out and just manually re-rail the occasional derailment, for what ever reason something may derail.
rb,
I can speak for most if not all that we try to fix derailing so we don't have to use re-railers.
I wish we could tell you why but we are not there. Is this the only rerailer you have? Is it happening to all or just this one. Maybe and just maybe you have one that is out of gauge as Les (desertdweller) suggested.
To download pics you need a photobucket account or something similar.
Here is your first test. Do a search on downloading pics.
Jerry
After rereading your post to Les I went and derailed several different cars and every one of them rerailed with no problem. I use 9 inch and 18 r rerailers.
Jerry,
Thanks for the response. I do intend to look for why they derailed, but that is not the problem I am asking about.
To answer your question, yes it happens on all re-railers on the tracks. I have 7 re-railers on one track and 4 on a second. I actually had one train make 2 laps, one at medium speed and the second at slow speed with 1 car slightly de-railed, and after crossing all 7 re-railers twice, I had to stop and fix it.
Since then, I have been watching this problem, trying many solutions and having no luck with the re-railers. Again, the problem I am trying to solve is not the de-railing, but the failure to re-rail. As I said in my last post, it looks like the majority of the time the truck will not re-rail if the lead wheel is the one off the track. If the trailing wheel in the truck is de-railed, the re-railer will correct the problem.
I know how to post photos on photobucket, but not movies.
If it works, here is a link to a you tube video. Not real great, but shows the way it is working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9XpSuIEVFA&feature=youtu.be
It shows the lead wheel walk right up the re-railer, walk across the top and drop off the other side, staying de-railed the whole time.
rb,
Try to loosen the screw that holds the trucks on. They may be too tight to swing up into position.
I will keep watching but rather than pushing it use your loco.
Jerry
On my Atlas rerailers the outside plastic ramp is flush with the top of the rail and also tight up against it.
From the video it looks like the Bachmann plastic out side ramp sits below the track so the wheel does not rise high enough to move back on to the rail.
Also if there is a gap between the rail and the ramp the wheel flange will just stay in the gap. These may be from a defective batch of rerailers.
That's all I can come up.
Rbryce1, I just took a look at this, and I think both Jerry and Ken may have your answers.
The fact that the performance is consistent suggests either the equipment has trucks that don't swivel as easily as they should (and that would contribute to derailments in the first place), or a design flaw in the rerailer. It may well be both.
The first thing to do is check your wheel and track gauge with a National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Standards gauge (which should be available through your hobby shop). This isn't related to truck swivel as such, but consistent standards are important in something like this.
The second is to make sure your trucks are mounted properly. In the real old days, when people had to scratchbuild a lot, it was easy to have trucks off-center, but that's not so much a problem today. What you should have is both trucks being able to swivel freely, and one--only ONE--should be a little looser than the other so that it can both swivel and rock. This gives the effect of a three-point suspension, and in fact, full sized equipment does this with side bearings that are deliberately tight at one end of the car, and deliberately loose at the other end.
Third, some rerailers--and I can't talk about Bachmann's version as I don't own any--do have a gap between the rerailer surface and the outside of the rail. Such a gap can trap a wheel flange and keep it from crossing over the top of the rail to drop into the appropriate flangeway. The solution here is either to replace the rerailers with another design like the one made by Atlas, or to fill in the gap with a piece of wood, plastic, or something to let a flange that is outside the its gauge to cross over the rail and be dropped back inside the track gauge, the flange on the opposite wheel doing this by being pulled by the inside flangeway surface of the derailer.
That last bit sounds more complicated than it is, but it's really simple.
Anyway, check this out, and see what happens; let us know, hopefully this will work out.
Ken and J3a-614,
I think you may have hit it! The plastic platform and the top of the rail are at the same height BUT, there is a definate groove in the platform surface right beside the rail on the outside edge of the rail and the de-railed wheel is riding in that groove all the way across the platform and dropping off the opposite side. I will try and fill it tomorrow (I guess today) and see if it makes it work.
I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't.
I just had to reply, because I feel your frustration with getting your question answered.
Perhaps you should have asked "How do the Bachmann EZ Track retailers work?"
Then ask "Why isn't that happening?"
:)
Wodering if the solution worked?
Is it the same pieces of rolling stock that's derailing and not re-railing? Also car weight may be at fault Are you using truck mounted horn hook couplers? Phil
So far it has not worked. :'(
I am using both body and truck mounted couplers, most all of my cars are correctly weighted to NMRA specs and it happens with most all of my rolling stock.
The only thing that has been consistent is the truck will not re-rail if it is the lead wheel that is off the track, but if it is the second wheel in the truck, it practically always re-rails. Seems to look like the lead wheel being on the track helps keep the truck lined up better, whereas the front wheel being off the track, the truck is pointed pretty much anywhere.
I even tried installing higher guide rails thinking they would grab the wheel better and move it back onto the track, but that didn't work either. The wheel just climbs over it, travels down the length of the re-railer platform and drops off the other side.
Guess I will just have to either re-rail it manually or stop and back over the re-railer every time it involves the leading wheel in a truck.
Weird ??? >:(
Just when we finely come up with a possible cause that sounds plausible it is busted! :-\
A few more questions: Do you use Bachmann sectional track on your layout, and are there compound curves (track curves both horizontally and vertically at the same point? Can you move the re-railer one track section AWAY from the curve? Have you tried (say) an Atlas re-railer in the same place? If it is a compound curve, all sorts of weird things happen involving wheels lifting off track, and if that is so, and the wheel lifts above the guides on the re-railer, you have diddlysquat chances of any re-railer working.
Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust
hmmmmm. is the car derailing and not rerailing truck mounted coupler? And if so is it hooked to a body mounted coupler car? If you are using horn hook talgo couplers next to a body mounted coupler the body mount coupler may not allow the the talgo truck to rerail itself on the rerailer. This usually occurs on cars 50' and longer. Phil
This is a great discourse on why cars derail and yes a well planned and executed rail installation will minimize derailments.
His question is about the effectiveness of the Bachmann rerailer. His point is well taken with me since I have older rerailers that put the flanges in the grooves instantly and my old steel rerailers aligned the trucks and set the flanges when part of a passing train or if I was manually setting it on the rails. They were especially good at rerailing front or trailing trucks of steam engines that can pop out for any number of reasons.
The Bachmann rerailers ( and I have 5 of them) seldom get the job done efficiently, I can manually run a box car back and forth over a Bachmann rerailer and then in frustration get down and eyeball the flanges in the grooves.
Yes... the Bachmann rerailers are not effective. They look like the others but do work as well.
have you checqued the flangeways with an nmra guage? if they're too wide they won't provide proper guidance for the wheels. you can shim them to tolerance with strip styrene.
but honestly, your time will be much better spent finding out why things derail in the first place. fixing the rerailer is like treating a broken arm with asparin.
Quote from: jward on July 13, 2012, 11:33:28 AM
but honestly, your time will be much better spent finding out why things derail in the first place. fixing the rerailer is like treating a broken arm with asparin.
While I guess this wasn't the original question, don't you really want to do both? Figure out why a car is derailing in hopes of preventing it, but don't you also want the rerailers to do their job properly when cars do derail?
Quote from: richd286 on July 13, 2012, 07:44:44 AM
The Bachmann rerailers seldom get the job done efficiently,
Yes... the Bachmann rerailers are not effective. They look like the others but do work as well.
Guess this is the answer to the original question. Everything else sounds like a politician avoiding an unpleasant question.
??? ::)
QuoteGuess this is the answer to the original question. Everything else sounds like a politician avoiding an unpleasant question.
Not so true Pops. I have 5 or so rerailers and have no problems with any of them.
I suspect he has another issue causing them not to rerail or as Ken posted he may have some bad rerailers.
Jerry
if he's having derailments regularly, he's having other issues by definition.
Quote from: jward on July 14, 2012, 11:53:35 AM
if he's having derailments regularly, he's having other issues by definition.
He has stated more then once that he is not having many derailings.
But that when a car does derail the rerailer will not put it back on the track.
This is stated very plainly.
I took a close look at the Bachmann rerailer and I agree that there is a groove on the outside edge of the rail that runs the length of the track section that keeps the wheel flange from crossing the rail and seating correctly. Thanks rbryce1
rbryce or richd-
Is there any reason the groove could not be filled with a thin strip of styrene or even a plastic material?
-- D
is there a groove on the inside of the re-railer next to the track?
This is so the inner wheel flange will be forced to move next to the rail pulling the out side wheel toward the rail also, so it will then ride up and onto the rail.
At least that is the way it looks to work on my Atlas re-railers.
???
Don...
I just looked at the track section and it is a very shallow groove on the outside edge of the track, and I am sure that the sharp edge of the flange get caught there. I just dry tested a strand of fine DCC wire and it could work very nicely since the roundness of the wire fills the groove and would help get the flange over the rail. Will keep you posted.
My two centavos here...
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that there isn't any such thing called overdoing the quality of your trackwork. Consider the tolerances that are in play here, and just how much deviation there is before things go boom!-down to the first level.
When laying out your trackwork, really go the extra mile and get as close to perfection as you can. Track that is kinked, lopsided, twisted, etc will spell misery untold, I don't care how much your buildings, brass locos, etc cost, or how nicethey all look. Unless you are building a static display, go the extra mile-AND TAKE YOUR TIME!!!
Rich C.
Hey Electric Whiz Kid...RTDQ. This isn't about laying out track work, it's about trying to get a component to do it's job.
don't you understand it's all related?
Quote from: jward on July 21, 2012, 02:39:21 AM
don't you understand it's all related?
FOR PETE'S SAKE, I'M SOOOOOO SICK OF THIS. DO I NEED TO SAY THIS AGAIN! TOPIC: RE-RAILING - NOT DE-RAILING. NO, IT'S NOT RELATED.
I have stated this dozens of times already. I am not talking about Atlas track, flex track, Acme track or McDonalds track. This is Bachmann track. If you are on a Bachmann site and know what Bachmann track is, then you know you have NO control over the gauge or precission of how the track can be laid. You only have control over how the sections are joined or to throw a bad section of track away.
I have stated about a dozen times what the issue is, and the issue is not how the track is being laid. Even if it were, I don't care how much care and precision you put into laying your track, YOU WILL GET A DE-RAILMENT sometime, and, ONE MORE TIME, that is the issue of this thread is - RE-RAILING, NOT DE-RAILING.
If anyone out there thinks that being SUPER carefull about how the track is laid will 100% prevent de-railments, or if you have never yet had a de-railment, you are so new to model railroading, you haven't even been born yet!
The issue is, AGAIN, why the re-railer is not working. Please, for all future commentators, if you wish to discuss the necessity of proper track laying, START YOUR OWN THREAD ON THIS MATTER. If you wish to contribute to my thread, please stay on the ACTUAL ISSUE or thank you, please don't comment at all.
WOW, all that and I didn't swear once!
Simple solution. Get out your razor saw or Dremel with a diamond cutoff wheel and replace the offending track. We do that at out club sometimes. This is part of model railroading. More time at the layout and less time at the PC and Internet. Less ranting and lower blood pressure.
Rich
Go to the below forum and join.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/11.aspx
Rich
Quote from: rbryce1 on July 21, 2012, 07:29:45 AM
Quote from: jward on July 21, 2012, 02:39:21 AM
don't you understand it's all related?
FOR PETE'S SAKE, I'M SOOOOOO SICK OF THIS. DO I NEED TO SAY THIS AGAIN! TOPIC: RE-RAILING - NOT DE-RAILING. NO, IT'S NOT RELATED.
rb-
Easy does it. I think you'll find good answers to your initial question if you go back through the various responses. Yes, some responders have expanded on your topic but that is pretty standard here and elsewhere. Use the responses which are helpful and ignore the others. Life is too short to spend it getting into a lather over a hobby!
-- D
Quote from: rbryce1 on July 21, 2012, 07:29:45 AM
Quote from: jward on July 21, 2012, 02:39:21 AM
don't you understand it's all related?
FOR PETE'S SAKE, I'M SOOOOOO SICK OF THIS. DO I NEED TO SAY THIS AGAIN! TOPIC: RE-RAILING - NOT DE-RAILING. NO, IT'S NOT RELATED.
I also got it from the beginning. I can only conclude that others want to put their spin on what you have stated, Ignoring the reality of the problem.
Jward, It is not all related if the track work is all good and cars do not derail. Why is that related to the rerailer problem he is having?
Just because you do not have his problem does not make it any less real.
Doneldon, Ken and all the others who actually are attempting to help with my problem,
Thank you, and and you are correct. Some people just need to put in their 2 cents in even if they need to take out a loan to do so! From now forward, I am only going to read the comments from those who are addressing the problem and completely ignore the ones who are just filling up space.
rb,
A lot of the poster's trying to help you are serious modeler's. Most hand laid track at one time or another.
Richg gave the best advice of all
QuoteSimple solution. Get out your razor saw or Dremel with a diamond cutoff wheel and replace the offending track. We do that at out club sometimes. This is part of model railroading. More time at the layout and less time at the PC and Internet. Less ranting and lower blood pressure.
The only suggestion I have is to call Bachmann's service dept. and see if they can replace them for you as Ken said you may have a bad batch.
I have about 6 Bachmann rerailer's that I have purposely derailed car's to see and everyone of them rerail just fine. The funny part is they all are the same as your's as you describe them.
Jerry
Quote from: Ken G Price on July 21, 2012, 04:00:06 PM
Quote from: rbryce1 on July 21, 2012, 07:29:45 AM
Quote from: jward on July 21, 2012, 02:39:21 AM
don't you understand it's all related?
FOR PETE'S SAKE, I'M SOOOOOO SICK OF THIS. DO I NEED TO SAY THIS AGAIN! TOPIC: RE-RAILING - NOT DE-RAILING. NO, IT'S NOT RELATED.
I also got it from the beginning. I can only conclude that others want to put their spin on what you have stated, Ignoring the reality of the problem.
Jward, It is not all related if the track work is all good and cars do not derail. Why is that related to the rerailer problem he is having?
Just because you do not have his problem does not make it any less real.
i am not saying the problem isn't real. it's all related. for example, the op seems to assume the problem is the rerailer when that may not be the case. if you have cars where something interferes with the swivel of the trucks, the same interference that derailed the car in the first place can also cause the car not to rerail. in this case, no amount of fixing the rerailer will cure the problem.
good troubleshooting procedures demand that all factors be considered when looking for a solution. they can be eliminated one by one until what remains muct be the problem. looking at the wrong factor won't cure the problem.
we were never told if the problem is with certain cars, or completely random. did the poster try runnign trains in the othher direction to see if the problem occurs that way? we don't know, we weren't told. did the op try flipping the strainght rerailers around, to see if that cured the problem? once again, we don;t know because we weren't told. if a curved rerailer, does moving the rerailer to a different position in the curve cure the problem? yet again, we don't know.....
we also don't know the track configuration at the places these rerailers are placed.
there are alot of variables which come into play here. if the op wants a solution to the problem, he has to be oopen to possible solutions. if he isn't he may not find one.
from reading through all this, my guess is the poster has a lot of train set quality cars which are notorious for having trucks too tightly mounted to allow any flexibility. This explains both the derailing and lack of rerailing. The trucks have to have some movement in all 3 dimensions in order for the wheels to be redirected. If the trucks only swivel and do not have some slight tilt from side to side they are too tight. This can be difficult to correct in train set cars which are often pinned to the floor instead of screw mounted
That is a very good point. I will do some testing tonight with that in mind. I know I have some cars with very loose trucks, and some not so loose. Will exercise each type and see if this turns up anything.
I had pretty much let this thread die, as everything I had tried to correct the re-railers did not work. I tried and examined everything everyone suggested, with no positive results. They still do not work.
A week or so ago, H & R Trains had a show and the Bachmann factory rep was there with a demonstration layout using Bachmann NS track and the re-railer I was having the problems with. I told him of the problem, and he said they all worked fine. He then took several types of new cars which he had with him on the Bachmann layout and proceeded to show me that they all worked ... however, none of them did!!! No car entering the re-railer in a de-railed condition would re-rail. He tried playing with the issue for the 2 days he was there, and could not get the re-railers on his layout to re-rail a single car.
He indicated he was going to get with the Bachmann design group and have this issue looked into.
rbryce1, while I felt your pain and frustration reading this thread (I have been there (here) myself) I am glad to see you persisted in trying to figure out the problem. I am curious to find out what Bachmann does for you.
In reading this, I was somewhat entertained (and I don't mean at your expense over your exasperation) it was like watching a tag team wrestling match at times-"In this corner we have fans of all things Bachmann and in this corner...."
And I hear your point loud and clear on how some approach trying to help in answering a question with the mindset of "bc I never had that problem must mean your problem lies elsewhere". Also funny (I don't mean in a ha ha way) that sometimes people don't read fully what was said before they post a response-basic skills people. Like I have said before, so many incorrect assumptions are made around here.
Good luck with this.
Quote from: jbrock27 on March 30, 2013, 08:19:14 AM
rbryce1, while I felt your pain and frustration reading this thread (I have been there (here) myself) I am glad to see you persisted in trying to figure out the problem. I am curious to find out what Bachmann does for you........
And I hear your point loud and clear on how some approach trying to help in answering a question with the mindset of "bc I never had that problem must mean your problem lies elsewhere".
Yes, I see both sides here. 1, the re-railer should just simply do that, period. 2, de-railing is not desirable and the cause should be corrected.
Some people want everything RTR while others get enjoyment out of tinkering and fine-tuning.
One thing we all have in common is the enjoyment we get from this hobby, and helping others.
Yep. Key phrase Morg, "helping others". Not sure that it is everyone's intent who post here but for the most part...
This is an old discussion. There is a flaw in the Bachmann rerailer. There is a small channel on the outer edge of the rail that snags the flange and stops it from crossing over the rail head. Ever notice that when you are placing a car on the tracks it takes a lot of "passes" to get it to seat correctly and sometimes you have to manually drop the wheel into the flangeway. This discussion is not about track/wheel mechanics which is always a worthy discussion but rather the Bachmann rerailer. I have an Atlas rerailer that gets the job done in one pass every time.
Richd, I for one realize this was an old post that the originator, rbryce1 recently added a follow up to. And I am glad he took the time to do so.
It amused me to read through it from start to finish.
Like you, I also have Atlas rerailers, some 40 years old that currently work flawlessly. To your point, I am curious, has Bachmann ever acknowledged their flaw in their rerailers? It sounds to me up until recent experience cited by the OP, that has not been the case.
Bachmann, we are still waiting! >:(
Please, no more ignoring us. What is going to be done? ???
Bachmann is never going to admit there is a flaw in anything it does or produces....the HO Shay and Climax gears are a perfect example. Until the problem grows out of control, they will take the usual route taken by corporate America.....deny the problem exists.
Sid
Bachmann must have a 100,000 rerailers out there and is not likely to own up. They are useful as a power connector and serve setting a car onto the tracks by hand if you move the trucks perpendicular to the track until the flanges seat. That's the only use I get out of them. I have tested fitted running a fine wire down the groove on the outer edge of the rail that would roll the flange over into the flange way but have other tasks are on the priority list to do and have not put it into operation. I bet there are any number of solutions to fill the groove. Get out your magnifying glass and check out the groove. Maybe a gap filler glue bead?
The issue has been discussed and will be remedied.