sounds simple enough, but no harm in asking from people with experience. my few attempts have resulted in split ties and loose rails. I'm sure experience will teach me a lot, but some help should accelerate my learning. i'm using code 83 rail.
i've found that tie thicknesses varies, is any particular type better than others?
should you spike at an angle, or straight down?
should the shank of the spike contact the rail, or is the head over the lip sufficient? Should the point of the spike be against the rail when you start?
what causes ties to split? can they be fixed with glue?
i've read every 5th tie is sufficient. i assume both inside and outside of both rails should be spiked on the same tie, which makes the tie more likely to split
how can problems be fixed? what are common problems?
when hand laying a switch, can pc and wood ties be mixed, or if wood ties are used, maybe only the switch tie should be a PC tie?
maybe others with some experience have questions?
thanks
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
With my turnouts I mix wooden ties and PC board ties. But with code 40 I didn't spike the rails.
My latest trestle has code 55 rails. I drilled holes and inserted then spikes into the bridge ties. I've angled the holes. I've spiked every sixth tie. But when I installed the trestle I put a thread of glue at the bottom of the rails.
I think the ties split when you have the spike to close to the border of the tie.
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
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I haven't done hand laid rail since sometime in the 1970s, but I seem to remember a few things. I spiked code 100 to Tru-Scale milled pine self-guaging roadbed, and also to separate ties with balsa, bass, and spruce ties. Splitting occured with them all, even sometimes with pre-drilling. I usually used a drilll slightly smaller than the spike size. Biggest problem seemed to be with the quality of the spikes. Some had burrs on the shaft or point. Second seemed to have to do with the coursness or fineness of the wood grain. I quickly found that spiking on both sides of the rail on the same tie could cause splitting. I didn't mind splitting on say 1 tie in 20 or 30, I've seen splitting on prototype ties, but I couldn't accept splitting on say 3 or 4 ties in a row.
I also found my spiking improved when I bought a dedicated spiking tool and stopped using needlenose piers.
Use small, skinny and sharp spikes.
Work directly above as much as possible.
With a needle-nosed pliars, initially grab the spike along halfway, push in the spike, then move the pliars to the top of the spike and push in. If there is a lot of resistence, grasp the spike again halfway along the exposed area of the spike and push it in before the final push from the top. Don't push so hard you crush the tie or depress the rail.
I recommend gluing the rail on a bridge. Lay a bead of Pliobond along the bottom of the rail. Let the glue set. Lay the rail using a soldering iron to "melt" the glue which will reset almost instantly as you move the iron along the top of the rail and using a suitably-sized metal object (I used a model locomotive weight) to hold the rail down as it is bonding. Alternatively, soldering the rail to metal-topped ties will work but be sure to gap them to avoid the obvious short.
I haven't spiked in a while. But I angled the spikes slightly to clear the rail top and very slightly offset them from the center of the tie so I could spike from both sides. The shank was against the rail. I used a hand spiker tool that I don't think is made anymore. As I recall the ties were sugar pine and I didn't have any problem with splits.
Other than the fun of doing it, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Last time I costed it out, there was only a very small savings with spiking every 5th rail or so. If you spike every rail, spiking may cost more. If you include tie plates, it will cost more. OTOH if you glue the rail down (I've used Walther's Goo with good results) you can probably save enough to make it marginally worthwhile.
Turnouts are another story. There you can save some money and possibly get a better result as well.
Enjoy
Paul
My specialwork is all spiked to wooden ties. I use Atlas flex for `plain Jane' track, and slide Atlas ties onto the rail where 8 foot ties show up in my puzzle palaces of complex specialwork.
My ties are soft - medium Balsa (Sacrelege!) - and I use very fine spikes bought in Japan. I very seldom have splits. There are two things which seem to help:
In my previous experience, spikes usually caused splitting AFTER the point passed through the tie and encountered something harder, like plywood.
My spiking tool of choice is pair of modified needlenose pliers, notched and with the tips V shaped to hold spikes solidly. I spike every other tie on hidden track (this is specialwork, not just plain track) and will spike every tie once I crawl out of the netherworld.
I spike vertically, and angle the spikehead so it isn't perpendicular to the rail. That allows gauge tweaking by rotating the spikes to move the rail sideways.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If you use soft wood ties such as pine with reasonably straight grain, spiking with the tie in the middle of the tie should not be a problem. It has worked for me. Another thought is the type of spike you are using. I don't know if they're still availabe, but I purchased more than a lifetime supply, it turns out, of spikes with a 1/2 inch shank that is very slender. I bought these from Caboose Hobbies in Denver Colorado while I was on a trip several years ago. The fine shank has never caused me any problem and I have never had ties split on me (using soft wood ties).
The problem of ties being of varying thickness has been with us forever. I got around it by cutting my own from pine using a very thin blade on my bandsaw to minimize waste, but it was not a total cure. I glue down a stretch of ties and let the glue dry completely; then take a 12 inch long sanding block and sand the tops of the ties until I am cutting material from every tie. I recommend using 420 grit sandpaper when doing this or your ties will disappear quickly. The ties can be re-stained prior to laying track if you wish, but the ties can be easily colored after the rail is in place also. I like to stain my ties before laying track to assure the entire tie is colored; it's just one of my quirks.
Broken Tie