Ties for hand-laying track--why wood?

[GaryHinshaw]

That's sweet track work - are the spikes the only thing holding it down?

Gravity.   ;D   Beautiful track Ed.  I have to say though, after Tom showed me his stretch of N track with Proto-87 tie plates I was underwhelmed: they were all but invisible to the naked eye.  Great for a photo-diorama but not for a layout.

[ednadolski]

Things improve a little after ballasting. The dried ballast glue forms a kind of clearcoat.

Did you clean the ties before painting?   Copper can form an oxide layer that may inhibit the paint.   I usually sand the ties very lightly with a fine-grit (600 or 800 grit - just enough to make a shine) sandpaper and clean w/alcohol before soldering anyway.  Also be sure to remove all flux residue after soldering.

Ed

[ednadolski]

That's sweet track work - are the spikes the only thing holding it down?

Pretty much.  The P:87 come in a couple of lengths, the shortest is the HO scale 6 inches.  But I use the 'elongated' ones in this case, since they go thru the ties and into the underlying plywood and hold better.   Considering the size you have to tug pretty good to start pulling it up.  BTW you don't want to put any of the yellow carpenter's glue where the spikes will go, since the glue becomes very hard and the spikes just bend trying to go thru it.

BTW these P:87 spikes are made with a reverse taper, to help hold in the wood.   I think coating them afterwards with your ballast glue also helps lock them down.

[Bob Bufkin]

If it's copper which conducts electricity, what keeps it from shorting out your track?

[DKS]

If it's copper which conducts electricity, what keeps it from shorting out your track?

...just remember to remove some of the copper or you will have a "fun" time locating all the short circuits.

Basically you just cut a small notch in the copper in the middle of the tie.

Or, you can do what I do and remove most all of the copper, leaving only square pads under the rails that sort of look like tie plates.
 


It's a lot more work, but I think the final effect is worth it. Sometimes I'll also scrape the exposed PC board material to simulate grain or split ties.

[ednadolski]

It would be awesome if we could get laser cut ties with spike holes for use with etched N scale spikes.

I had this conversation with a vendor a few years ago, but they went in a different direction.

[ednadolski]

Gravity.   ;D   Beautiful track Ed.  I have to say though, after Tom showed me his stretch of N track with Proto-87 tie plates I was underwhelmed: they were all but invisible to the naked eye.  Great for a photo-diorama but not for a layout.

Thanks Gary.   I've found that it helps a bit with the tieplates if you paint them a contrasting color.  Still, the three-foot rule scales out to nearly 500', so even if you look at prototype track from that distance you're not going to see the tieplates.

I'm learning more about the effects of gravity every day  ;D

[ednadolski]

Basically you just cut a small notch in the copper in the middle of the tie.

It's a good practice to check the notched ties with an ohmmeter before laying the rail, otherwise finding the tie(s) with a short can drive you crazy.

[conrail98]

It's a good practice to check the notched ties with an ohmmeter before laying the rail, otherwise finding the tie(s) with a short can drive you crazy.

One thing Tim mentions in his tutorials on the CD that comes with the jigs is to use a marker on the jig itself next to the PC board cutouts to remind you to cut the notch. Not that this is full proof, but if you use a jig or jigs, doing this might just make it part of the routing in hand laying. I will say this, all these threads has peaked my interest in giving this a shot on portions of my layout (I've already decided to do this for turnouts),

Phil

[davidmbedard]

Keep in mind that Fast tracks offers "pre-gapped cross ties" that have 2 gaps cut per PC board tie.  They are gaped close to the rails to help hide the PC board tie.  They also tend to be thicker to match the wood ties.

David B