Tutorial Video: Hand-lay an N-Scale Code 40 Turnout

[ednadolski]

... details ... which get lost with Andy's Proto87Stores fret

http://www.proto87.com/media/ntrack12.jpg

You can see in that linked image how easy it is for those tieplates to become lost, esp. if painted a color close to that of the ties.   The 'spikes' are all but invisible, since being a half-etch on the tieplate they are raised only about 0.005" (quite possibly less, I haven't measured the full metal thickness.... btw & fwiw, the P87 code 70 tieplates are very similar in that respect).  It is very easy to obscure them with paint, in fact, in that image, the paint is the only thing holding the tieplates in place.  I found it very hard to position the individual parts precisely enough by hand. 

The rail itself is spiked down, but if you look close you can see there are no tieplates in the ties that actually have spikes, as the p87 spikes are too big to fit into the C40 tieplate holes.  (The caption is incorrect about the 'glued' rail, also those are actually Micro Engineering ties in the sample, altho they have a nice color and texture I have found to be more irregular than I would care to use. But a spike in N scale would have to be something like 0.006" square cross-section, and would be crazy hard just to pick up with a precision tweezer.

So all things considered, I think that @svedblen building a complete turnout from such tiny parts is one pretty impressive feat!

BTW @robert3985 you really are too kind about that #12 turnout.... my soldering is quite sloppy, esp. compared to what you do with your resistance unit (I really should look into getting one of those - and I have delaminated more than my share of ties), not to mention my PCB gaps.  I really should to come up with a way to get rid of PCB ties entirely (forget even trying to put a spike thru those.....)

Ed

[svedblen]

Although where the plates are extra large, they can be readily seen, the "normal" tie plates are hardly there, as I suspected when looking at my dozen frets.

You can see in that linked image how easy it is for those tieplates to become lost, esp. if painted a color close to that of the ties.

@robert3985, @ednadolski I totally agree. Although it can be fun to try doing an N-scale turnout with tie plates, just for the sake of it, I don't think it is worth the effort for a complete layout.

I did start building this beast as well, but I never finsihed it.

In any case, too bad the layout didn't get finished.  I would have really liked to have seen the rest of your trackwork, as this example is very nice indeed!

Here some pictures, showing part of the track work, with tie plates 

...the p87 spikes are too big to fit into the C40 tieplate holes... But a spike in N scale would have to be something like 0.006" square cross-section, and would be crazy hard just to pick up with a precision tweezer.

I had the same experience. And although they were HO-scale spikes, advertised on the Proto87 N-scale page, they were still way to small too handle. I never used them.

[dem34]

I really do think scale tie plates in N are on the far end of the diminishing returns spectrum, at least to do when handlaying traditionally. Even under the scrutinizing eye of the camera lens a bit of paint the same color of the rail along the ties is usually good enough in representing the detail. At least for my sanity.

[Maletrain]

I think printing the plate and spike details directly onto the ties will give better results with far less effort.

[dem34]

I think printing the plate and spike details directly onto the ties will give better results with far less effort.

I agree, hopefully our resident @narrowminded will fill that niche when the time comes.