After Hod Carrier’s wonderful article on UK track detailing, we thought it’d be good to look at track detailing for North America as well. These digital designs represent details found on American railroads and though the designs were based specifically on my experience with railroads in the United States, railroads in Canada and Mexico tend to follow similar practices and use similar equipment. All of these designs are compatible with the PennLUG standard of track building, instructions for which are available for free at l-gauge.org.

Dragging Equipment Detector (DED) and Hot Box Detector

Defect detector is a general term for a number of wayside vehicle monitoring devices used by railroads to inspect the cars in their train as they pass. Some common types of defect detectors include Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILDs), Dragging Equipment Detectors (DEDs), Hot Box Detectors (HBDs), and Automatic Cracked Wheel Detectors (ACWDs). These detectors monitor the train as it passes over them and log and alert the crew to any defects that are detected, so that the offending car can be scheduled for repair or removed from the train.

Here I’m focusing on DEDs and HBDs. DEDs (at left) consist of sensors mounted between ties that deflect, or bend when a dragging piece of equipment, like a chain, strikes them. HBDs (at right) use an infrared detection system to monitor the temperature of the journal bearings where the car sits on the axle. If the journal is too hot, there is a problem with the axle causing too much friction. These two detector types are some of the most common on North American railroads, and are often sited together. When sited with a DED, the HBD will have guard slopes on either side to ensure any dragging equipment doesn’t damage the sensors.

Lego’s new Slope 45 1×1 Double (part no. 35464) is perfect for the DED. The 2×2 tile represents a junction box where the wires for the detectors would come together before going to a relay cabinet (shown later).

Derailer

Derailers, also known as derails, are installed in places where the consequences of derailing a train or car are less severe than the consequences of not derailing the train or car. The most obvious example would be at a movable bridge: when the bridge is open (raised) the derailer would be set to derail a train, as derailing the train is not as bad as the train crashing into the river below.

This type of derailer is known as a hinged derailer, which sits on top of the rail and lifts the wheel over the rail. These are commonly seen in yards or on industry sidings, to prevent stored railcars from rolling out onto the main line. In the US, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requires industry sidings from main lines to have derailers installed for this purpose. The FRA also requires them to be painted a clearly visible color, like yellow. As the name suggests, the derailer has hinges so that it can be folded into the gauge of the track (i.e. between the rails) so cars can pass over it.

Here’s two versions of a hinged derailer, one in the derailing position and one in the open position. The blue sign is an optional feature, which is typically used when workers are doing maintenance on a piece of equipment. The “open” derailer requires a bit of modification of the track structure in order to get the tooth plate upside-down, but allows for it to be included on the layout without preventing use of a track.

Switch Machine

Mainline switches on most railroads are controlled remotely by a dispatcher, and switch machines have the job of physically moving the switch. There are many models of switch machine produced by many different manufacturers, and this is a representation of just one type.

The switch machine requires a bit of expansion of the ballast section under the tracks. The black tile at the top represents a junction box where the wires go into conduit to be run to a relay cabinet.

Switch Heaters

The purpose of a switch heater is pretty straightforward. Parts of North America are subject to low temperatures and heavy snowfall in the winter, and many switches are susceptible to freezing or getting packed with snow and becoming inoperable. Switch heaters use a wayside generator and ducts between the switch points to blow hot air into the movable part of the switch to prevent freezing of snow buildup.

This design uses the new Bracket 1×1 – 1×1 (part no. 36841) to connect the hose to the ballast section, making it look like the hose is buried in ballast.

Relay Cabinet

Relay cabinet is a general term for wayside electronics cabinets on the railroad. The name comes from the signal relays, or magnetic switches, that they originally housed. Shown here are two types, a smaller, older style at right, and a larger, newer style at left. These cabinets are not used exclusively for relays, and they can be found at signals, switches, defect detectors, grade crossings, and numerous other locations along the railroad.

Using Lego’s door parts allows for the interior of the cabinets to be detailed as well. This one includes a junction box at left, battery backup in white at bottom, and three magnetic relays using trans-clear headlight bricks (part no. 4070) and round plates to represent the magnetic coils. The large cabinet features headlight bricks at the roof representing the lifting points, as these are installed by crane. These features could make for fun vignettes, with signal maintainers working inside the cabinets or using a crane to install a new one!

Piled Ties

Maintenance on North American railroads is often carried out by track gangs; large teams of workers specializing in replacing one component of the track. Typically the materials for these gangs are dropped along the track in advance of them arriving at the worksite. Thus, it’s common to see bundles of new ties and buckets of spikes, clips, or other track materials along the right of way.

Similarly, old ties are often piled or discarded along the right-of-way awaiting a crew to pick them up (or simply being left to decompose). It’s pretty common for these ties to be deteriorated or have plates still attached to them, so in this case studs showing is a good thing!

Hopefully these ideas help get the creative juices flowing and give you some ideas to add detail to your home or club layout!