When I was at John's house on Saturday, he showed me an Atlas rerailer that he had retrofitted with c55 rail and ties.
It got me thinking. One of the drawbacks to using a re-railer back in my c-80 days was that it rarely fit where I wanted it to both function as a re-railer, and provide the appearance of a grade crossing in a logical place a road would cross. You have a 5" chunk of track with a crossing in the middle. If you are placing it in a tangle of turnouts, or in a semi-urban environment, the crossing just wouldn't seem to be where the road wanted to be.
How big a deal would it be to make a three part system that was designed to function as a re-railer, but could be snapped into place anywhere the track straightened out long enough for a road to cross? Obviously, a slight curve would still present a problem, but since Atlas has so far decided not to include a re-railer track in its c55 series, maybe there's an opportunity here.
I've seen the simulated rubber mat crossing that Craig makes, but it's not right for a '60's/'70's railroad, and it doesn't function as a re-rail. I'm thinking a plastic insert for between the rails, with clips to catch the Atlas tie spacing, and two approach pieces for either side. It wouldn't have to be tapered into a ramp, I think most of us are capable of building up a paved road surface. But it could be detailed to look like a timber grade crossing, and include the ramps at either end to catch errant rolling stock like a regular re-rail.
Maybe the scale purists would pooh pooh it's appearance, but I think some Average Joe's might be encouraged to dip their toes into the warm waters of code 55 if such a product were available.
Just a thought...
Lee
