rrebell:
Interesting that the TruScale man would denigrate his own products. If the rail wasn't brass Code 100, I'd love to have some of his old switches. I liked the closed frogs. They didn't operate exactly the same way that a prototype closed-frog turnout works, but they worked well and were as close as you could get to the type of turnout used on a lot of major lines.
Tom
hon30critter I find it very interesting to learn how things were done 'back in the day'.
I find it very interesting to learn how things were done 'back in the day'.
Dave, if by some chance you make it to Los Angeles, CA on a Sunday or a Tuesday in the next few months, come by the Pasadena Model Railroad Club and check out our soon-to-be-replaced analog control system. Ten cabs, block control with lockout, pre-set routing patches at the ends of the railroad, and it's all done with relays. The only computer that I know of is in storage under the layout. One of the components we rely on was designed for a B-17 bomber. We're going to convert to DCC after our Fall open house in November. It'll be good to modernize, we're long overdue, but the old system is pretty darn cool to see in action (although a bear to fix when it goes wrong).
Aaron
zstripeI didn't have that problem with the ties or much derailments for that matter.
Frank I agree..I pushed myself back in the 60s to have derailment free operation and operation nights on the Columbus HO club's layout proved I could easily attain that goal even with correctly mounted X2F couplers and the newer plastic trucks with RP25 wheels by Athearn. I must have spent $70-80.00 replacing old trucks on various brands of freight cars.
Even with brass track,locomotives with brass wheels one could have smooth and trouble free operation..
I would use that old fiber tie flex track today if it was still readily available..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
zstripe They were fiber ties, with holes pinched out for spikes, they were also cut every fourth tie on both sides staggered so You could bend them in a curve. They came in 25ft rolls from Atlas. They were made to go with Atlas code 100 brass track, that were sold in 99ft bundles. Spent many an evening hand spiking track on cork roadbed and in curves, I used Tru-Scale plain milled wood roadbed....spikes would go in without splitting the wood, without pre-drilling, thank God...LOL. Had a fairly large three level layout built with all hand layed track. Started on it in 1955...I was 13 yrs. old....My Dad was not into trains... I learned on My own. Take Care! Frank
They were fiber ties, with holes pinched out for spikes, they were also cut every fourth tie on both sides staggered so You could bend them in a curve. They came in 25ft rolls from Atlas. They were made to go with Atlas code 100 brass track, that were sold in 99ft bundles. Spent many an evening hand spiking track on cork roadbed and in curves, I used Tru-Scale plain milled wood roadbed....spikes would go in without splitting the wood, without pre-drilling, thank God...LOL.
Had a fairly large three level layout built with all hand layed track. Started on it in 1955...I was 13 yrs. old....My Dad was not into trains... I learned on My own.
Take Care!
Frank
SouthPenn mobilman44 Yup, Atlas fibre tie strips............. One major problem, they absorbed humidity like a sponge, and any use of glue/water mix for ballast adhesion was often a problem. Maybe the humidity/tie strips is the reason I remember having a lot more connection problems and derailments back then. Our trains were in the basement. South Penn
mobilman44 Yup, Atlas fibre tie strips............. One major problem, they absorbed humidity like a sponge, and any use of glue/water mix for ballast adhesion was often a problem.
Yup, Atlas fibre tie strips............. One major problem, they absorbed humidity like a sponge, and any use of glue/water mix for ballast adhesion was often a problem.
Maybe the humidity/tie strips is the reason I remember having a lot more connection problems and derailments back then. Our trains were in the basement.
South Penn
I didn't have that problem with the ties or much derailments for that matter. My parents basement was finished with Heat/AC, the layout was in the furnace/laundry room which was also temp. controlled.
Found another pic' I had of part of the layout...not the greatest, but better than the other...camera was not that great then. You can see in the fore-ground the Shinohara brass turn out and brass track. Also it is pretty blurry, but that Ulrich tractor trailer on the hill, has two Athearn infamous rubber band drive motors in the trailer...LOL.
zstripe RR_Mel RR_Mel wrote the following post an hour ago: I can take us back a bit further to 1945 with my first train which was Lionel O27 three rail. Mel, LOL,LOL....I hated 027 Lionel and My parents new it. The only thing I liked was the uncoupling feature. My 1947 Christmas gift was a Gilbert American Flyer S- scale, with a 4-6-2 with smoke. I just don't talk much about My flyer days. Got the HO bug in 1950, with a Varney Train set for Christmas and was hooked.....where the hell did the time go? Bye! Take Care! Frank
RR_Mel RR_Mel wrote the following post an hour ago: I can take us back a bit further to 1945 with my first train which was Lionel O27 three rail.
Mel,
LOL,LOL....I hated 027 Lionel and My parents new it. The only thing I liked was the uncoupling feature. My 1947 Christmas gift was a Gilbert American Flyer S- scale, with a 4-6-2 with smoke. I just don't talk much about My flyer days. Got the HO bug in 1950, with a Varney Train set for Christmas and was hooked.....where the hell did the time go? Bye!
RR_MelRR_Mel wrote the following post an hour ago: I can take us back a bit further to 1945 with my first train which was Lionel O27 three rail.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I have three unused boxes of those tie strips.If I decide to use them I figure a few coats of flat black will seal them.
If anybody wants some fiber tie strips, a local hobby shop in my area found a roll in a box of used stuff they bought.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
zstripe did a three foot section at a time or less and pre-cut the tie strip, painted the cork roadbed with dark grey enamel paint, layed the tie strip on the painted cork and put a few staples in the tie strip, then poured the ballast right on the wet paint and ties. Then started spiking the track.
Gee,Frank, I think that might have been the way my Dad ballast track..My feeble minded memory stumbles and trips in that area even though I remember Atlas flex track and switches with fiber ties my dad used and they track was ballast and the yard was ballasted with cinder ballast..
Now I'm a' thinking the glue mixture method came with the plastic ties.
Yes, it was called fiber tie strip and I too still have a roll of it. I bought most of my rr track from America's Hobby Center in New York City. A brass turnout on fiber was about $1.25 and I put mine right on the plywood or pine board; didn't know about cork and probably couldn't afford it. This was in the 1950's and I was about 13 at the time. Don't miss that stuff!
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Hey guys!
Like a famous crooner sang, "Thanks for the memories...."!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks for bringing back some great memories. I was about 8 when I started helping my Dad. We didn't have any roadbed or ballast that I remember. We spiked everything to pine boards that my Dad cut on a bandsaw. And we used brass rail. We used to clean the rail everytime we ran the trains. My job was to do inside the tunnels as my arms would fit inside them.
I don't think our ties were pre-cut. I remember learning how to use a pair of 'side cutters' and cutting the link between the ties at about every other tie. But only on the outside of the curves.
We used window screening to form the landscape and covered it with plaster. ( on a second layout we used paper mache )
I don't know where the switches came from but they looked just like the pre-DCC Shinohara switches that I use now. They were controlled by choke cables. ( I had no idea where the cables were from until I was 15 and started working on cars. )
Again, thanks for the memories.
Funny thing, this week we just received another box of Atlas fiber ties in the original box at Boothbay Railway Village. The marked price was $1.00. It is in good shape, and we are going to put it on display on the history shelf.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I am almost (but actually, not at all) ashamed to say that I still have a full roll of the Atlas fibre tie material like new in its original box. It is true that water can make it warp and curl but it is also true that when the material was in common use, few if any used water based material anywhere on a layout, much less in laying track. Shellac, baby!
Atlas also made built-up and kit turnouts using that same fibre tie material. In fact Atlas also made a track gauge using the fibre material, and yes I still have a few of those around here somewhere.
I have some recollection that O scale guys used the Atlas fibre tie material to make picket fences back in the day.
Don't even get me started on Baker couplers ....
Dave Nelson
Back then, I think it was TruScale who sold a sort of liquid ballast. It was just gray paint with granules in it, so when it dried you had a granular surface.
Those were the days!
charlie9 How many of you tried to apply ballast to that fibre tie strip and found that it curled up when it got wet? Charlie
How many of you tried to apply ballast to that fibre tie strip and found that it curled up when it got wet?
Charlie
The fiber ties was common and there was ways to ballast the track without the ties curling. IIRC it had something to do with the white glue mixture and it was thicker then the mixture we use today but,workable..
I never used water.... I did a three foot section at a time or less and pre-cut the tie strip, painted the cork roadbed with dark grey enamel paint, layed the tie strip on the painted cork and put a few staples in the tie strip, then poured the ballast right on the wet paint and ties. Then started spiking the track. The paint took close to an hour to dry back then, more than enough time to spike a three foot section....once dry...it held everthing in place quite good. I even got many comments on how good it looked...I was shocked myself....I thought it would be messy. I used John's ballast back then...I believe that was made from cork...10cents a small box.
Perhpas no Geritol needed maybe. I'm 56 and my first mail order of track I received (1970's) had cardboard ties held on to the rail by what looked like staples. I was surpised, and not pleasantly. I do think it was the tail end of cardboard tie track, I never received any after that. I didn't see the ties in a roll, but sounds similar.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Way back when, my Dad and I laid all our track by hand. We used ties that came in a roll and looked like they were made of some type of card board. Does anyone else remember these or should I increase my daily Geritol intake?