Yaaaay!!! I just handlaid my first section of track!!! haha.... I got some free samples of the Central Valley tie-strips in the mail from Central Valley. Anybody interested/curious about handlaying: Send Jack Parker an email over at Central Valley www.cvmw.com and just ask him a question or two that you have, or something your concerned about, and that you're interested in handlaying your own track but aren't sure of the best way to go or how hard it will be, and you'll most likely get some free samples. But make sure you buy more!!!
Haha, anyway.... so yeah, last night I finally got the chance to make use of all the new toys that I'd gotten over the last 2 saturdays (2 Railcraft code 55 track guages, Xuron rail cutters, Micro Engineering microspikes, plain pieces of code 70 and 55 rail, ME turnout ties for a Railway Engineering turnout i'm getting).
So last night I sat down and glued down some cork for the diorama I'm going to build to practice my tracklaying and scenery techniqutes on before I do work on my actual layout. And who knows, maybe I'll be able to send my diorama pictures into the MR contest haha, if i get it done in time.
Alright anyway, while the cork and glue were drying, I took the turnout tie-strip from Central Valley, and positioned it on some scrap cork underneith it, and clipped a ~12 inch piece of the code 70 rail for the straight stock rail. Its amazing how the Central valley strip holds the rail in guage all by itself. Code 55 rail will need a track guage to hold it in place, but its totally doable. Anyway, I held the rail down, and tried driving some spikes. I must have bent about 8 or 9 before I realized I needed to "prime" the hole with a pin (I used a Woodland Scenics foam nail.... something smaller/finer is probably better cuz the WS nail is a little too big and deformed the plastic a little bit).
Once I did that, and finally figured out my own personal technique for holding the spike with needle-nose pliers, I spiked it!!! Successfully! Haha... I'd waited at least 15 years to do that. I never thought I'd ever be handlaying any track... its crazy. And its SOOO easy!!!!
I'm at my girlfriends house right now and don't have my digital camera, but i will post pictures so you guys can all see. If you think you might ever consider thinking about maybe considering the idea that you might possibly want to maybe try handlaying your own track, GO DO IT. Get some Central Valley tie-strips, and you're set. It really is SO EASY. There is NO REASON not to do it. I was just like everyone here, reading the praises of the handlayers and how easy they said it was. They were right! It really is so easy. The Central Valley tie-strips give you absolutely no excuse not to handlay your own track if you want to or ever think about it. and its FUN!!! I didn't want to stop, but I was already late getting over here (i told her i'd be over in time for Family Guy last night at 9... and I missed American Dad at 9:30 also lol).
So anyway, what does everyone else here have to get up and say "yaaaaaay!!!" about?
Sorry youngster. You just put down a variant of flextrack.
Real craftsman type handlaid track is done by gluing down hundreds and thousands of individual wood ties, then laying out where the first rail goes, spiking that down, and then coming back and spiking down the second rail in gauge with the first rail. And then doing the same thing with turnouts. No plastic involved. Sure, Central Valley has a good product and all, but don't fool yourself by saying that you have "handlaid" track.
Sorry to be negative about it, but I don't want you taking away the skills of a real craftsman who does handlaid track on wood ties. By the way, I am going to use some of CV's tie strips too, just so you know that I am not down on the product.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
i understand what you are saying, but it is still handlaid: you are the one putting the spike in. Sure, its easier and not the ultimate in authenticity, but its still handlaying. I wanted to use these to get my spiking techniques down; i have ME ties to use later on with Railway Engineering turnouts.
i do have a question though: I'm using ME's micro spikes; can I just spike directly into the tie, or should/do I have to prime the tie by using a needle or something else?
I really like the look of having the spike holding the rail down. How do you go about weathering though, to retain the detail of the spike? I would think that spiking down the track and then painting it would take away the image of the spike holding the rail down. Would it be okay to paint the track first with acrylics and then spike the track down?
Technically, CV calls their product "semi hand-laid"
I would build all my track work and then use light coats with an airbrush to weather it all. (roof brown, rail brown) I used spray cans in those pics I sent you and it did cover up a lot of the fine detail. I'll use an airbrush next time. You can use a small drill bit in a pin vise to start your spike holes. There's also a couple of spike tools out there that would make life much easier for you. Are you using any kind of contact cement along with the spikes?
Congratulations Greg!
I use individual wood ties, so it's very easy for me to stain the ties, paint the rail, solder on the feeders, and ballast the ties - all before I even begin to spike the rail. If I put in some scenery before I spike the rail, it gives a very nice railroad under construction scene.
For the rail, I just brushed on some Testor's of the appropriate color. I wiped one corner of the railhead with a paper towel or rag before the paint dried - I made sure this became the inside corner when I laid the rail. I also cleaned the paint off any part of the rail where I would be soldering feeders.
In one of the Yahoo groups where handlaid track is discussed (handlaidtrack, HOn3, layout construction, P87), it was brought up that the ME spikes are not consistently well shaped. Some were blunt, some had sharp points, etc. The P87 spikes (http://www.proto87.com/) are closer to scale size and may work without pre-drilling. The number of bent spikes is going to determine whether you have to drill a hole or not.
As to painting the tie strips first, it shouldn't be a problem if the paint is kept thin. You don't want to obscure details or fill the tie plate so that the rail doesn't fit or sit properly. Joe Fugate uses the Central Valley ties for his turnouts. He has posted how he does this - you might check into how and what he does.
Fred W
gandydancer19 wrote: I don't think it looks natural or real for spikes to stand out on model track, unless you spike every tie as the real RR's do. IMHO spikes that stand out on every 5th or 6th tie along a rail does not look very real.
yeah i know what you mean; i really like the look of handlaid track, even when you can see that its spiked only ever 4-5 ties. Tony Koester is a prime example... i love how his track looked on the AM. I just can't really tell whether he painted over the track after it was spiked down, thus covering the spikes with paint. I know its not prototypical, but in a way i think its HO-typical, in that its the bare minimum needed for reliable operation, whereas real-life trains need their rail spiked every tie, if that makes sense.