I've used the pricey Azatrax brand IR setup and it would be easy to duplicate with the already built parts mentioned above (live and learn). The LEDs on the years old version I have are of the type from the original post and demonstrated in John H's video. One advantage was that the LEDs are on long wires rather than mounted to the board - so they could be used next to each other as they are on the modules, or you could place the emitter on one side of the track and the detector on the other. With the LEDs next to each other my results were similar to John H's - unsatisfactory. Placing the LEDs on opposite sides of the track was reliable in my experience, worked with dark cars and shooting them at a diagonal solved the gap-between-the-cars problem. Empty flat cars of varying heights were still an issue. The hardest part is getting the LEDs lined up. A piece of string is your friend! I've hidden the LEDs in bushes, buildings, snow drifts... If you are comfortable unsoldering one LED from the ebay modules and adding a length of wire, and you can find a place on each side of the track, you can have a cheap and well working setup without the addition of time delay relays.
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