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I am now building my 4th HO layout and have learned the hardway to spend lots of extra time in the planning and trackwork stages to ensure that the track is not the source of derailments (except for running into the points which happens to everybody now and then. This time, I'm adding re-railers in my hidden and off-stage yards, tunnels and hidden track sections. Why? Why Not! They are cheap and save time climbing through hatches or duck-unders. Switches can be adjusted to work smoother. I've spent hours making sure that all the rough edges were filed down on my switches and that the rails are in guage. I also never believe that my passenger cars or big articulated will pass through an 18 or 22" radius curve without a problem. #1 it looks awfull and #2 it's a derailment waiting to happen. Stick to #8 switches and 30" mainline curves with easements. Freight yards can use the #4,5, and 6's because the speeds are slow. Since my rolling stock varies from cheap kits and RTR all the way up to craftsman kits, I spend a few bucks per car adding properly guaged wheelsets and/or trucks, and kadee type couplers with their pins properly adjusted. Buy yourself a NMRA standards book, a track guage, a small scale, a coupler height gauge and some train-only tools. The religously check and test each and every car and loco. 90+% of RTR and car kits today don't come with enough weight to be within the NMRA recommendations. Those that fail stay on the workbench until fixed or replaced. Don't go cheap on the benchwork either. If you live in a climate where the humidity changes dramatically from season to season, you'll be sorry if you use cheap wood. Go with oversize L-girder bench work. Most of my previous trackwork problems popped up 6 months later when the wood base moved (schrunk) and caused just enough track deflection to cause a problem. I'm going for overkill this time by pre-priming my benchwork to prevent this even though my trainroom is climate and humidity controlled this time.
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