Random part of the day: Rail 8X12, W/ Ramp

Is this the new part many are calling a rerailer?

@MeisterDad said:
" @Zordboy said:
" @ElephantKnight said: "For when you want to take your trains offroad."

And who doesn't?

I hope history is kind to "Hidden Side", as a theme. There were a couple of misses, particularly in that third wave, and yes, Lego still hasn't quite figured out that toy/app connection ... but "Hidden Side" was great. The ghost train set was amazing, it was one of the best train sets they've released in the last few years. The set had a real visual style, it came with this rerailer and an actual station building (and not just a platform made out of five pieces) and the monster gimmick for the train engine was gorgeous. "

I agree, and this part was long overdue. Also liked the high school and the lighthouse sets. So far, I’ve only managed to snag a school."

Not to mention the Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000...

A part that should really have been released with the 1st railway track. Available forever with other model railways.

@cody6268:
Kind of? It appears to be a design that’s unique to L-gauge, unless Brio has something similar. This is designed to allow trains to transfer from a flat surface to a raised rail. It may have its conceptual origin in the 2018 Hogwarts train, which had zero track, and a hinged block that would lock the articulated front bogey straight, so it wouldn’t skid sideways when you HOG the train around on the floor. This ramp allows kids to play with trains without needing a suitcase full of track, but it wouldn’t really fit well in an AFOL’s layout.

In regular hobby trains, the closest I can find is a down ramp that straddles the track. Cars are loaded onto the ramp and allowed to roll downhill. As the wheels reach the bottom of the ramp, they are aligned with the rails so they drop on with the flanges in the center.

There’s also an automatic rerailer, which looks similar to the crossing in 60335, except with additional angled tips on the outside of the rails. As each bogey passes through, if it’s cockeyed or completely off the rails, ramps will raise the wheels up as angled walls will shift it sideways to drop onto the rails. If it’s already seated correctly, it’ll pass through without touching the rerailer ramps.

There’s a real world version of the automatic rerailer, but it’s a lot shorter relative to its length. It looks like it’ll only handle one axle at a time, reducing the chances of accidentally derailing the car instead of straightening it up.

I also found two basic designs for portable rerailing devices. One is shaped kinda like part 93273, and you’d mount one on each rail, so they’re both on the right or the left, depending on which side the bogey derailed to. As the wheels roll forward, they’ll ride up the hump, and there will usually either be an angled wall to force the wheel to shift sideways, or it’ll slope towards the rail at the top so the wheel slides sideways. Because they rest on only one side of each rail, if wheels derailed to both sides of the track, you’d need to switch them from one side to the other, according to each axle you need to reseat.

The other type is a triangular ramp with a slot in the center. One fits over each rail, with the base of the ramp extending far enough to either side that it’ll catch any derailed wheels regardless of which side they ended up on. As they near the top of the ramp, angled sidewalls will force the wheels to center before they drop off the back onto the rails.

Funny, the part reminds me of a similar part from modeling railroading that I saw a loooooooong time ago: basically it was a derailer/rerailer set-up to make it easier for the...track-runner? Track owner...to be able to load rolling stock and the like on to a system/track quicker 'rolling' the car over the part; instead of 'placing' the car on to track. The version I saw might of also been 'disguised' as a crossing...

Real world equivalent (well, kind of): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB2ASozB07s

@brick_r:
If it’s the kind that looks like a crossing, it’s more designed to reseat the wheels as the train passes over it, but it can also be used to load cars. The removable ramp style that sits on the track looks like it’s a lot faster and easier for loading rolling stock onto the track, since gravity does most of the work. This isn’t really equivalent to either style. It needs a terminal end and a flat surface to work. It’s not designed to work with baseplates, much less ballasted baseplates (or MILS), so you’d need to create a tiled area at the base of the ramp (ballast or MILS actually make this easier, since they create vertical space to accommodate tiles).

@Brickalili:
No. Absolutely not. I would never say that. I didn’t give up a spot on one of the most popular shows of its time to pursue a movie career that never materialized, only to fall back to doing a cheap caricature who faked his death for an audience of zero.

@PurpleDave
Ah you’ve lost me there with actual lore, all I know of CSI is the memes XD

it's a common piece in modelling railroading: my father got several of this in his LIMA trains (H0 scale).
It's used to add a train with all the wagons on the rail easy, without set several wheels

@WizardOfOss:
That’s…interesting. I wonder if that’s unique to Japan. I’ve read that they shut down their high-speed rail every night for a few hours so an army of inspectors can walk every single inch of the rail system, looking for things that might need to be fixed. They might use those rail trucks often enough to be worth installing systems like this that will automatically center the truck over the rails, so they don’t have to jockey it into position by eye. I’ve never seen anything like that in the US, so I think here they just drive the truck over the rails and line it up as best they can before engaging the drop-down train wheels.

So, while this performs a similar function, it looks like it’s only there for these rail-capable trucks. Train bogeys should be narrow enough that they would pass through without making any contact (unless the entire bogey jumped to the outside of one rail), and it certainly should be possible to line up these rail trucks without driving between a set of these bumpers.

@Brickalili:
The actor, David Caruso, was the “good cop” to Denis Franz’ character the first season of NYPD Blue. The show was a smash hit, and Caruso quit after one season figuring his fame from the show would kickstart a starring career in feature films. Nope. Eventually he showed up again as the lead scenery-chewer for CSI: Miami. At the end of a season finale late in the series, he shows up at what appears to be an abandoned local airport, walks out into the middle of a taxiway, and gets shot dead. The following season premiere, it was revealed as a ruse to flush out some criminal, but there was _NOBODY_ at the airport to witness the fake murder. Well, except the audience.

@PurpleDave said:
"That’s…interesting. I wonder if that’s unique to Japan."
Like this, it apparently is. There are a few other options, like the Schi-Stra-Bus in Germany in the 60's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schienen-Straßen-Omnibus ) but that one depended on separate train wheels. And there are guided bus systems ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bus ) that don't use regular train track at all.

As for that DMV in Japan, a similar system was first tested at Hokkaido, but never entered regular service. This one at Shikoku (Asa Seaside Railway Company) is the first to enter commercial service.

"I’ve read that they shut down their high-speed rail every night for a few hours so an army of inspectors can walk every single inch of the rail system, looking for things that might need to be fixed."
I doubt they do it that way, as they have special trains to continuously check the condition of the track and catenary at full speed (>300 kmh), much quicker and much more reliable. Most famous are the "Doctor Yellow" trains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Yellow

But shinkansen lines are less than 10% of the total railway network in Japan. For most part is an entirely separate network with even a different gauge (1435mm standard gauge) versus 1067 mm Cape gauge for the vast majority of other railway lines, including that DMV line.

But all railway lines are closed for a few hours at night, mostly just for regular maintenance work. Or sometimes for something a bit more spectacular, like connecting two separate rail lines on different levels in the worlds 5th busiest railway station in just 3,5 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbZqqLra9k

"They might use those rail trucks often enough to be worth installing systems like this that will automatically center the truck over the rails, so they don’t have to jockey it into position by eye. I’ve never seen anything like that in the US, so I think here they just drive the truck over the rails and line it up as best they can before engaging the drop-down train wheels."
Yeah, for dual-mode maintenance vehicles a system like this is probably not that useful. So unless such vehicles are often used at a specific location, it doesn't make much sense. That DMV makes 13 runs a day in both directions, so that's a different story.

@Zordboy said:
" @ElephantKnight said: "For when you want to take your trains offroad."

And who doesn't?

I hope history is kind to "Hidden Side", as a theme. There were a couple of misses, particularly in that third wave, and yes, Lego still hasn't quite figured out that toy/app connection ... but "Hidden Side" was great. The ghost train set was amazing, it was one of the best train sets they've released in the last few years. The set had a real visual style, it came with this rerailer and an actual station building (and not just a platform made out of five pieces) and the monster gimmick for the train engine was gorgeous. "

I bought two of the ghost train sets when they were on a deep discount, and they also make for great train parts packs. My favorite Hidden Side sets also include the Wrecked Shrimp Boat and the Shrimp Shack. They fit perfectly into the "swampy" coast of our family's LEGO City. The app was pretty awful (although my kids enjoyed it for a few minutes), but the theme had some great builds.

@WizardOfOss:
Oh, so that’s a passenger vehicle that was getting seated onto the rails? Japan really is a weird place.

And it wasn’t an article after all. It was an episode of NOVA from about five years ago, called “Why Trains Crash”. They examine all the extreme lengths Japan goes to in order to maintain their perfect safety record on the Shinkansen. Yes, Doctor Yellow was one of the systems mentioned, but that was in addition to manual inspections of the entire high-speed rail system every night (this only applies to the high-speed rail, and does not impact any standard lines). Doctor Yellow will catch stuff that humans will miss, but human inspectors can monitor more than just what Doctor Yellow is programmed for. They also have this policy where, before you take any action, you have to step out where you’re visible, and making an exaggerated full-arm hand motion (kinda like cracking a whip, but pointing with two fingers), you have to loudly announce what you’re doing. Not only does this make sure that everyone in the area knows exactly what you’re about to do (and gives them an opportunity to tell you to stop if it’s not safe to proceed), but it kinda forces you to pay attention to your own actions, rather than operating on autopilot. I mean, it’s an insane level of safety process that would cost a fortune to maintain in the US (especially in rural areas), but you can’t argue with their safety record.

@PurpleDave said:
This way they can continue where the tracks stop. The company operating this line took over a bit of track (10km/4 stations) from JR Shikoku. From the terminal station on weekdays they continue on for just 5 more kilometers, on weekends for 40 more. Considering this is in a remote rural area with very low ridership, this is more efficient than operating both a train and a bus. Though you could question why not just a bus, as there is a perfectly fine road along the route, just 2km longer.

As for the pointing&calling, it's not as extreme as you described it (more often than not they just mumble a bit...), but they certainly do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td4FdXdVzPU. Indeed mostly to be very aware of what they're doing. After all, despite all safety systems, most train accidents are still caused by human error.

Here in the Netherlands we don't do that. Here we have our own solution to cope with human errors https://i.imgur.com/tzJyt8t.png

I always wondered how this part ended up in the Hidden Side set (first). Was meant to be included in some city train that never launched?

@WizardOfOss:
A friend from college spent a few years there, and cars are definitely a luxury. Not having public transit would devastate any community there.

And the people I saw doing the callout routine were being recorded for US television, so I’m sure they picked the most by-the-book employees with zero sense of self-consciousness. I couldn’t do it. I don’t think I know a single person who could, either.

@PurpleDave :
It very much depends where in Japan. In the big cities, especially Tokyo, a car is more of a burden than a luxury. But there are still lots of rural areas where people rely more on their cars than public transportation. But not everyone can use a car, children have to travel for school, so some form of public transportation is almost everywhere in Japan. Though don't think of trains running every few minutes like in Tokyo, but more like just a few times per day.

Some years ago there was this story about a station at Hokkaido that remained in service because of one single student. The moment she graduates the station would be closed. Often this story was made a bit more sensational, that the entire train kept running because of her, but in reality it just meant that a train (that will keep running) stopped twice a day at that (unmanned) station. She better not miss her train :-)

As for the pointing&calling, I guess it's just a matter of getting used to. And it doesn't even have to be that extreme, it's not for others to see you do it, it's all about triggering your own brain by seeing, confirming and acting accordingly. It has been proven to be very effective.

This conversation on a LEGO part has been sidetracked.

(Just puns, don't take the above comment seriously. Hopefully I didn't derail this thread too much!)

@WizardOfOss:
He stayed in Shigaraki, which is a tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hamlet of about 30,000. The school he worked for had an ultra-compact that he got to use on days when he was assigned to teach at a satellite school for half a day (so he could quickly travel between them at midday, I guess?), but none of the teachers in his program bothered with cars since they were only going to be there three years max. I think only a few of the local faculty had cars, either. Between finding a spot to park it, and the laws regarding upkeep, it just wasn’t worth it when the entire country had train service. So, he did a lot of traveling on the weekends, but unless he was going somewhere with someone local who owned a car, the only times he sat in one were work-related.

And the kids, until they reach high school age, probably don’t go very far to get to school. Once they enter high school, if they aren’t going into some type of farming (which every high school covers to some degree), they have to ship all over the prefecture to get to whichever high school covers the speciality they happen to be enrolled in. For some students, it may mean walking down the block, but for other students in the same class it could be an hour by train to get there from whatever nearby city they call home. Meanwhile, the first kid’s neighbor is on a train headed the other direction because they took a different speciality that’s a 90-minute ride away.

As for the pointing and calling, I get it. I really do. I can imagine a union negotiation where they’re trying to do away with it and get asked how many fatalities they feel would be acceptable annually because it’s too embarrassing to point and call. Some of the fastest trains in the world, and yet a perfect safety record is notable. We’ve got people over here who can’t master walking around poles sticking out of the ground.

@Murdoch17:
Doesn’t look like you’re trying to engineer a way to switch it back. Perhaps you should tender other matters.