Code 70 Track...

[strummer]

I know that "code" refers to the rail height, but what about this:

I purchased some Micro Engineering flex track, and a couple of Walthers/Shinohara switches. As (I hope) you can see by the photo, the "foot" of the Walthers rail is noticeably wider (which means the rail joiners I got won't fit the Walthers track "as is") and the spike heads are taller.

I have some very nice European trains I like to run, and they all work ok on the ME track. On the switches, however, only the Roco trains clear those spike heads; every other brand rattles across them, like N scale "pizza cutter" wheels on Code 55 track.

What's up with that?

Mark in Oregon

[DKS]

Although rail heights have (more or less) been standardized, the specific dimensions of other parts of the rail, such as base width, web thickness, head height, etc., have not been standardized. Nor have the dimensions of other aspects of track, such as "spike" size, tie thickness, etc. The same issue exists in N Scale and, I suspect, all other scales as well.

[Point353]

I know that "code" refers to the rail height, but what about this:

I purchased some Micro Engineering flex track, and a couple of Walthers/Shinohara switches. As (I hope) you can see by the photo, the "foot" of the Walthers rail is noticeably wider (which means the rail joiners I got won't fit the Walthers track "as is") and the spike heads are taller.

NMRA RP 15.1 has suggested dimensions for rail: https://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/standards/sandrp/pdf/rp-15.1.pdf
For most rail height "codes", the width of the base of the rail is essentially the same as the height.
Which track is closer to meeting that spec, the Micro Engineering or the Walthers/Shinohara?