More fun With Code 40 Rail

[GaryHinshaw]

That looks phenomenal Ed; much better than the P87 offerings!  Is this a commercial product, or did you design/etch them yourself?  Are you intending to spike every tie?  Are you using any glue?

One idea that might be worth considering would be to etch the plates with a thin connector between them at the nominal tie spacing.  The upside would be that it would force lateral alignment over a group of plates, and probably ease handling.  The down side is that you would be locked into a fixed tie spacing, and the connector might be slightly visible under the rail base.

[tom mann]

Wow, that indeed looks pretty nice.  I wouldn't want to do a room full of it, but a photo diorama or some select areas for photos.

[robert3985]

Cool stuff Ed!  Do you actually put in eight ( spikes per tie?  Maybe as to the "holding" problem. Perhaps you could drill an initial pilot hole through the tie that is smaller in diameter than the spike, using the in-place tie plate as a guide...press in one spike, then drill as many other pilot holes on that tie as spikes you're using.  I'm gonna bet they'd hold better, and the force to set them would be considerably less than just pressing them through the tie without a pilot hole, which might make squashing the Styrofoam less of a problem.  Although you didn't say anything about splits, I bet there were some splits.  The pilot holes would do away with them.

BUT, a whole hell of a lot of work! 

I agree that I wish somebody would make these (and frets of turnout tie details) in code 55 since I'm betting the amount of hand-laid turnouts in code 55 is at least as much (most likely way more) than code 40.

I'm thinking that cork would be okay too, and a drop of runny CA that capillaries under the tie and grabs the spikes/cork would probably be better than Homasote.

Also, when you get the track ballasted, that'll hold it all together too.

Anyway, as usual, very very interesting!

[Zox]

One thing that would make the whole process a lot easier:  some heavier track gauges (perhaps machined from a small block of steel), to keep things from moving around before they can be spiked.

Could you put a short piece of steel pipe, or a stack of steel washers, over the vertical "handle" to add weight to the existing gauges?

[nkalanaga]

If one is using the ME gauges, with the round handle on top, just drill a hole through a weight and set it over the handle. 

[ednadolski]

I wish someone could offer code 55 tie plates like that!.

The code 55 rail has that overly wide rail head, which (to my eye at least) tends to dominate the look.  So for me, adding individual tieplates would not be enough of an improvement to justify the level of work.  The ME code 55 flextrack can be painted & weathered well enough to look nearly as good as the individual tieplates, with a lot less effort (altho nowadays it does have that issue with the sideways offset).

That looks phenomenal Ed; much better than the P87 offerings!

Thanks Gary!  That was actually a goal, I never really cared that much for the P:87 tieplates -- they are so small that they are barely noticeable in-person, and those 'dummy', etched-on spike heads just don't look right to my eye.

  Is this a commercial product, or did you design/etch them yourself?  Are you intending to spike every tie?  Are you using any glue?

I designed and etched these on my own.   I used UP drawings as a guide, with dimensions adapted to the model track.

There is no glue.  Every tie can be spiked, if you want that look.  It's just a matter of effort.

These are phosphor bronze, so the spikes are easier to bend than the P:87 spikes which are stainless steel.  In fact, I want to try these tie plates with the P:87 spikes, to see if they can fit thru the holes.  Being longer, the P:87 spikes would hold better (assuming I used a better roadbed than foam  ).

One idea that might be worth considering would be to etch the plates with a thin connector between them at the nominal tie spacing.  The upside would be that it would force lateral alignment over a group of plates, and probably ease handling.  The down side is that you would be locked into a fixed tie spacing, and the connector might be slightly visible under the rail base.

I'd be concerned that might get tricky to handle in any length over a few inches.  These things like to bend and twist all over the place (just look at that fret of spikes...). It would also make curves tricky, since the spacing on the inner rail would need to be closer.

I wouldn't want to do a room full of it, but a photo diorama or some select areas for photos.

Definitely.  As above, even at relatively close viewing distances it can be hard to tell the difference from well-painted flextrack.

For visibility at regular viewing distances, there is always Proto:48.... 

Cool stuff Ed!  Do you actually put in eight ( spikes per tie?  Maybe as to the "holding" problem. Perhaps you could drill an initial pilot hole through the tie that is smaller in diameter than the spike, using the in-place tie plate as a guide...press in one spike, then drill as many other pilot holes on that tie as spikes you're using.  I'm gonna bet they'd hold better, and the force to set them would be considerably less than just pressing them through the tie without a pilot hole, which might make squashing the Styrofoam less of a problem.  Although you didn't say anything about splits, I bet there were some splits.  The pilot holes would do away with them.

No, no problem with splits, the spikes go thru the ties fairly easily (which is probably why the holding power isn't so great).

Four spikes per tie is time consuming enough. I can't imagine doing eight.  As for drilling... again, maybe for Proto:48, but I'm not up for attempting that in N scale.  (I'm not quite that unhinged, at least not yet  )   Anyways, a #80 bit would be too large, and anything smaller would be too fragile.

I agree that I wish somebody would make these (and frets of turnout tie details) in code 55 since I'm betting the amount of hand-laid turnouts in code 55 is at least as much (most likely way more) than code 40.

Turnouts are a different animal.  I can see doing those for code 55, but I would want a fret with all the proper spacings, so that all you would have to do is lay the rail atop ties that have already been glued in place on the roadbed and in the proper pattern.  The deal is, you would need a separate fret for every angle of turnout, plus one for left and right (since with a half-etch pattern, you could not just use either side as if it were etched flat. Given the area that one turnout would occupy on a sheet, the cost would likely be relatively high.  Another challenge is how to maintain gauge, since the rails would have to be electrically isolated, they could not remain connected thru the fret after assembly.  (Using PCB ties, with gaps, would seem to defeat the purpose).

I'm thinking that cork would be okay too, and a drop of runny CA that capillaries under the tie and grabs the spikes/cork would probably be better than Homasote.

Also, when you get the track ballasted, that'll hold it all together too.

The sample that I did with spikes and doorskin (birch) plywood roadbed still seems pretty stable even years later.  I might try some of that Homabed stuff (IIRC they recently might be having problems filling orders. However I am not at all sure about that.)  Anyways, I think I might want to try longer spikes, perhaps 0150" - 0.200", and made from stainless steel.

Another caveat with that is to avoid gluing the ties with a glue that hardens so much that the spikes won't go thru it.

Could you put a short piece of steel pipe, or a stack of steel washers, over the vertical "handle" to add weight to the existing gauges?

If one is using the ME gauges, with the round handle on top, just drill a hole through a weight and set it over the handle. 

Good ideas.  I have some fishing weights lying around somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.


Thanks!

Ed

[railnerd]

Bravo, Ed.  Looks very, very nice.

-Dave

[sd80mac]

Hi Ed,

Did you have these etched? Or are they available from a manufacturer?

Donnell

[ednadolski]

Did you have these etched? Or are they available from a manufacturer?

Hi Donnell, I drew them up and had them etched.  The metal is 0.010" phosphor bronze.

Thanks,
Ed

[andyl913]

Hello Ed,
  I really like your work with the tie plates. I sent you a PM.

Thanks,
Andrew

[ryan_wilkerson]

I thought the name sounded familiar so I looked him up. John is the co-founder of New Rail Models (http://www.newrailmodels.com). I wonder if he might offer those concrete ties as a product? Looks like he already did the hardest part of the job.

I think I mentioned this to you before, but at last year's local RPM meet, John Socha-Leialoha showed some samples of his injection molded concrete ties that he was developing for a MOW load.  Here are two shots from Andrew Hutchinson's Flickr page:

Because of they way they're bundled, the existing molds are not suitable for track, but I could envision a simple variant that might be just the ticket and John might be interested.    I don't have any contact info for him, but Andrew probably does, so you could PM him.  It could be a great meeting of minds!

 

[Sokramiketes]

John has a little know blog talking about his adventures in injection molding, and now, rapid prototyping.  Here's the ties: http://trains.socha.com/2010/09/concrete-tie-car.html