why handlay track and handbuild turnouts???

[marknewton]

With ballasted track, how often do you actually see the tie plates, spikes, etc?

All day, every day. I'm too familiar with what real track looks like to accept too many compromises in model track.

Even on the prototype alot of that detail is "hidden" by the ballast....

No, not on either the railway I work for, or the railway I model. My regular run is over 75km of line - in that distance there is perhaps 250 meters of track where the ballast is deep enough to conceal the spikes and tie plates, and that is gradually being removed.

There are very good reasons real railways don't bury the track in ballast up to the railhead, one of the main ones being that they want to keep the spikes visible so the MoW workers can see at a glance whether they are loose.

Cheers,

Mark.

[R. T. POTEET]

tomikawaTT;

Couldn't have said it better myself!

As I stated in my earlier response, I would just love to handlay track but it is terribly time consuming so I use flex and try my durndst to disquise it!

[Tom Curtin]

  I have to ask, why would you do that when you can just buy track and turnouts that are already assembled?  It seems like a great deal of work that doesn't really need to be done.  MIke Brubaker 

I would say the case for handlaid track comes down to two items (in either order):

1. Sheer joy of craftsmanship.  There are modelers who want an operating railroad with as little fuss as possible; and then there are the craftsmen, who derive their pleasure from the fine points of the building process.

2. Appearance.  Rail hand spiked to real wood ties does look considerably more realistic than any prefab track.

That said, I have never used anything but Atlas track, which I swear by