Ties on the prototype

[edkowal]

I think I must buy a ME turnout and a bit of ME flextrack and check it out. Do they have a webpage yet?

MicroEngineering tends to take the low road when it comes to advertising (they place a few ads per year, sometimes skipping several monthly issues in a row) and they do not seem to be in any hurry to have a web site of their own, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, there are places online that carry all their stuff ... here's a link to a good one with pictures.

Electrolove:

You might also find these sites useful:

http://www.proto87.com  especially its first subpage.

Also:

http://www.templot.com/martweb/templot.htm

although primarily known in Great Britain, has some very useful information on tracklaying in general.  The software available can be used for American construction as well as its primary aim at British and European construction methods. Usual limitations apply, ie, I'm not connected to either of these sites personally.

There are several Yahoo discussion groups as well.

-Ed

[on30francisco]

 When I was modeling in HO, I tried laying my own track with wooden ties, code 70 rail and a combination of spikes and Pliobond glue. I then discovered Micro-Engineering (back then called Railcraft) flextrack. Once it's weathered it looked better than handlaid due to the scale-sized spikeheads and tieplate details. ME track also has  the random spacing, lengths, and placement of the ties. Micro-Engineering even makes track, both sectional and flex, for Large Scale narrow gauge (G track) and other scales and gauges with realistic rail sizes, ties, and tieplates. Unless you enjoy hand laying track, ME track is definitely the way to go.

[larak]

It looks to me like the ties are the SAME lengths but offset randomly to the left or right. This is something that I've noticed walking along the local West Shore. This is especially obvious on the ME track. (which does look nice).

To achieve this you would have to cut one or both ends of each tie. Too much work for me. Probably in scale and ballasted, just trimming a few ties short would achieve the desired effect. Personally, I remove the occasional tie (often at flextrack joints) and glue it ack in at a slight angle or displacement to cut the "regular" look of the Atlas flextrack.

Enjoy.

[jfugate]

I think I must buy a ME turnout and a bit of ME flextrack and check it out. Do they have a webpage yet?

MicroEngineering tends to take the low road when it comes to advertising (they place a few ads per year, sometimes skipping several monthly issues in a row) and they do not seem to be in any hurry to have a web site of their own, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, there are places online that carry all their stuff ... here's a link to a good one with pictures.

[Dave-the-Train]

Look at this picture from Railblazers excellent collection:

http://www.trainweb.org/railblazer/drgw/drgw14/kobe.html

As you can see the ties are not exactly the same length. How common is it to cut the ties at random (on flextrack) when building model railroads? And is it worth the extra work to make the track look realistic? If you have done it, please upload some pictures.

Electro:

If you use MicroEngineering track, it has the uneven tie positions molded right in the track, so you don't need to do anything. By my way of thinking, ME track is the only way to go -- it has such tiny spikeheads and the naturally uneven ties make it better looking than handlaid once you ballast and weather it.

AW NO!  Now I gotta go and check every ME tie, square it off and check its position so that it looks like brand new panel track assembled on a jig and dropped into place by a machine in a dead straight line for the appearance that I was planning on!

[electrolove]

I think I must buy a ME turnout and a bit of ME flextrack and check it out. Do they have a webpage yet?

[jfugate]

RT:

I've had some situations while laying ME flex track that the delicate spike heads will allow the rails to pop off the ties, so I try to be careful. With just a bit of care, working with ME track is not a problem, and I really like the way it holds its shape as you bend it. This allows me to pre-lay it without fastening it down, and to study the alignment for a few days. Once I do fasten the track down with latex caulk, I know that the given alignment is exactly what I want.

I've only had one situation where the rails popped off the ties because of expansion/contraction problems. I clearly did not leave any space between rail sections and I laid the track originally in the winter. When summer came, the track expanded and the rails popped right off the ties because it had no other place to go since I didn't leave any expansion gaps at either end.

Fixing the bad spot was easy since I hadn't yet ballasted the track. I just cut out the bad section of track with a motor tool, used a putty knife to pop the track up off the caulk, and laid a fresh piece -- and this time left a small expansion gap. That was 6 years ago or so, and I haven't had any problems since.

I too, prefer ME track. It's delicate appearance is hard to beat. The only real contender for looks is Central Valley ties strips and turnout kits.

[R. T. POTEET]

My first layout when I shifted from HO to N over twenty-five years ago was done in Atlas flex.  I have been using Railcraft/Micro Engineering Code 55 flex for most of the last twenty years (I was an apartment dweller for nine of those years and each move required construction of a new layout) and it is still my brand of choice; I have experienced none of the problems associated with ME such as outlined in NS2591's post.  Back in the mid-'80s when I decided to shift from Atlas Code 80 to Code 55 I tried my hand at handlaying; after progressing about twenty-five feet I grew weary of the monotony of it all and went to flex; I build my own switches but I understand I have been doing that all wrong and so, on my future layout, I am going to have to take care to build my switches in order to insure frequent derailments.

One of the things I like about ME is that it looks like it was installed by railroad workers and not by graphic designers with straight edges - I don't have to examine Micro Engineering track with a microscope to identify the irregular length and offset of the ties.  Even at that I do a couple of things to further enhance the prototypical appearance of my track.  Randomly I cut lengths of tie material from beneath the rail and install loose (wooden) ties which gives that section different coloration and random tie spacing.  I take lengths of 3 foot flex and chop it into smaller lengths and randomly insert it between full length sections - this tends to further break the monotony of the flow of trackwork.

My current layout is inoperable and will be demolished and a new one designed and built.  One of the things I am going to do on this one is use Micro Engineering Code 40 for sidings, side tracks, and spur/industrial trackage.  I have examined Atlas' new line of Code 55 track; it's looks great and it is definitely less expensive but I reckon I'll stick with what has given me trusty service, Micro Engineering flex-trak.   

[Anonymous]

July,1999, weathering track, George didn't remove ties, but cut random edges off ties to simulate shorter, uneven ties.

Then tells how he paints track for weathered look.

[cuyama]

Do you remember if that was the article where he also removed every 3 or so tie (and spread out the rest) to mimic industry spur trackage; in other words, clean mainline trackage would have heavier rail, more ties (closer together, and more orderly placed so less uneven tie ends), and better ballast, while less heavily used branches had less ties, lighter rail, and less evenness and precision in trackwork. All added to prototypical realism...

I don't remember any Sellios articles on laying flex, but one article describing removing a few ties from each stick of flex and spreading the remaining ties out was by Bill Darnaby, November 1997 Model Railroader. It was called "Creating Realistic Track". The techniques work well.

Regards,

Byron

[jfugate]

Joe, I hate to go against what you say, becuase you are 99% of the time right, but the model Railroad club that I'm in used ME track and we're trying to replace it. Yes it looks good, but when the track is layed by someone that is inexperinced and where the climate control isn't very good, it goes bad very fast. The tiny spike heads are what are the problem. if they where just a little bit bigger it would be great track, but they're so little that the track goes out of gauge or the rail breaks off with almost no effort, I was running a train and it went through one of the oldest curves on the layout and the spikes broke and the train derailed. I would never recamend ME track, Atlas may not look the greatest, but it works great!

NS:

Interesting you should bring this up ... actually, the ME track looks great in photos, and it does take some care in laying it -- AND if your layout room has a lot of temperature extremes, ME track probably won't take the beating without popping the rails off the ties.

However, if taking photos of your layout for publication isn't your thing, carefully ballasted and weathered Atlas code 83 track can look wonderful as well -- even properly ballasted and weathered Atlas code 100 will look quite decent for a big mainline operation.

It's interesting how it all kind of looks the same to the eye when you are concentrating on running trains and not down at eye level.

But once you get to eye level with a camera, there's a HUGE difference in how Atlas code 100 looks as compared to how the proper code of ME track looks. But at the distances we normally view a layout in person, it's not nearly as noticeable -- so if delicately detailed flex track like ME concerns you, and taking realistic photos for publication is not a high priority, then by all means go with a brand of track that's more rugged.

[Anonymous]

Chutton01, yes, I beleive he also used cinders and ditr for spurs.

[rrebell]

I use shinohora and have snipped out a tie or two, and snipped the conectors so that I could spread them out a bit or angle them, and last some ties I removed just to put back but unaligined with the others ( did this mostly on spurs ). 

[NS2591]

Joe, I hate to go against what you say, becuase you are 99% of the time right, but the model Railroad club that I'm in used ME track and we're trying to replace it. Yes it looks good, but when the track is layed by someone that is inexperinced and where the climate control isn't very good, it goes bad very fast. The tiny spike heads are what are the problem. if they where just a little bit bigger it would be great track, but they're so little that the track goes out of gauge or the rail breaks off with almost no effort, I was running a train and it went through one of the oldest curves on the layout and the spikes broke and the train derailed. I would never recamend ME track, Atlas may not look the greatest, but it works great!

[chutton01]

I think micro- engineering flex has uneven ties molded in. There was an article in either MR or RMC by George Selios, wer he cut random edges of ties to match prototype. Just use sprue cutters and cut one here and there. What's more noticable in the photos are the different colors of the ties.

Do you remember if that was the article where he also removed every 3 or so tie (and spread out the rest) to mimic industry spur trackage; in other words, clean mainline trackage would have heavier rail, more ties (closer together, and more orderly placed so less uneven tie ends), and better ballast, while less heavily used branches had less ties, lighter rail, and less evenness and precision in trackwork. All added to prototypical realism...

[tatans]

Well, O.K. If you look really close you can distinguish the difference in tie lengths, but when reduced to HO scale would this dissappear? as in the grain in wood dissappears when reduced to H.O. scale(some say) more to the point, one reader points out the differnt colours of the ties would be as important as tie length, I agree.---- And again the age old question of "prototype" it depends on who is interpreting the term doesn't it !!! ---  Joe F, great photos, really have to look close to see if you sneaked in a photo of a real train.

[edkowal]

Look at this picture from Railblazers excellent collection:

http://www.trainweb.org/railblazer/drgw/drgw14/kobe.html

As you can see the ties are not exactly the same length. How common is it to cut the ties at random (on flextrack) when building model railroads? And is it worth the extra work to make the track look realistic? If you have done it, please upload some pictures.

Happens all the time on the prototype.  It's not really an effort, more like a lack of attention to how parallel you make them and how you cut them to length.  Within reason, of course.

Machine laid track and/or concrete ties may be the exceptions to this rule of thumb.

Sorry but I don't own a scanner or digital camera, but both are "on the list" of new acquisitions.

-Ed

[electrolove]

Joe,

That is the most realistic track I have ever seen. The ties looks fantastic. I have looked at your layout pics so many times but I missed this. I understand now why you use ME. Do you have the same random ties on the ME turnouts?

Do you know if ME have a webpage yet?

[jfugate]

Well, not of unballasted track, but here's some unaltered ME track in a scene where the tie ends stick out past the ballast. This photo was taken when we were doing a photo shoot of what steam would have maybe looked like on the Siskiyou Line ...


(click to enlarge)

And here's a closeup of just the track, so you can study the tie ends:


(click to enlarge)

Again, this is *unaltered* ME flex track. It comes with the ties having random ends and you don't need to do a thing except lay it and enjoy the realism!

[electrolove]

Joe,

Do you have a close up picture to show of an unballasted ME track?

[jfugate]

Look at this picture from Railblazers excellent collection:

http://www.trainweb.org/railblazer/drgw/drgw14/kobe.html

As you can see the ties are not exactly the same length. How common is it to cut the ties at random (on flextrack) when building model railroads? And is it worth the extra work to make the track look realistic? If you have done it, please upload some pictures.

Electro:

If you use MicroEngineering track, it has the uneven tie positions molded right in the track, so you don't need to do anything. By my way of thinking, ME track is the only way to go -- it has such tiny spikeheads and the naturally uneven ties make it better looking than handlaid once you ballast and weather it.

[Anonymous]

I think micro- engineering flex has uneven ties molded in. There was an article in either MR or RMC by George Selios, wer he cut random edges of ties to match prototype. Just use sprue cutters and cut one here and there. What's more noticable in the photos are the different colors of the ties.

The extra work is up to you.

[electrolove]

Look at this picture from Railblazers excellent collection:

http://www.trainweb.org/railblazer/drgw/drgw14/kobe.html

As you can see the ties are not exactly the same length. How common is it to cut the ties at random (on flextrack) when building model railroads? And is it worth the extra work to make the track look realistic? If you have done it, please upload some pictures.