This is a little odd or silly, but I don’t think I am being lazy…
After spending hours some months back trimming off spikes and shaving down ties to insert below rails where ties have been removed for connecting sections of flex track (you know, anywhare from sometimes 1 to 4 or more rows where curves cause joints to be offset) I got to wondering is any retailer makes ties trimmed down for this purpose???
I need brown code 83 variety.
As I say, I don’t think I am being lazy. It literally took hours to prepare dozens and dozens of ties in this fashion to fill in the gaps when I reconnected my entire old layout after moving to a new location… Not only do the spikes have to be trimmed off to shove the ties under the rails, but they have to be shaved down to fit under rail joiners, and they have to be painted/tinted, where the trimmed parts show whiteish plastic on the brown.
(In case you are wondering, the old ties prepared for this purpose were rendered unusable by my having used acrylic caulk to set them down. Most were bent or broken in the dismantling of the sections.)
why bother? i just use strip wood super glued into place and then trim the ends a bit if needed. a little paint and the job is done. quick, cheap, looks good enough for my old eyes.
Even though all of us that use flex track and rail joiners have the same challenge of how best to fill in the gaps, I think it would be difficult to make a living selling spare ties. I too, take the extra ties that I need from scrap flex track and use a flat file on the underneath side to make them slim enough . The only other reasonable alternatives would be to use either scale lumber or appropriate sized basswood, stained to match the general shade that you desire.
Yeah, I figured as much. I didn’t really think anyone made the ties for that purpose, but I had an impression of seeing some spare ties sold as perhaps trackside details and wondered if anything would be useful from that sort of detail.
Maybe I’ll grab an bigger section of track and put it in a vise somehow and work on it with a big flat file…I just nearly cut myself up everytime thinning those things down with an exacto blade.
I made a small finger saving jig to hold the tie then cut a clean grove with a Dremel and a flat edged stone wheel just a bit wider than the rail joiner. No finger nicks and I turned out a bunch in little time. The jig was just some scrap wood arranged to grip the tie at a length so the spike heads were exposed at the edge of the jig. The depth of the slot allowed for one tie and a cover piece to secure the tie when the grinder moved across. The ties look like all the others… I’ll get around to painting all those ties one of these days. … maybe on the next layout.
I made a jig as well for a belt sander. using a piece of scrap wood I cut a rabbit into a piece of scrap wood to hold the spare ties in place. A quick second or two on a belt sander and they slide right under the gaps.
I also use Code 83 flextrack, the Atlas brown colored variety.
I use a pair of Xuron rail clippers to remove the ends of the flextrack, usually a two or three tie piece, when I am first laying the flextrack on my layout. Then, I save the ends in a small box for future use.
When I use the end pieces to set under the bare rails, I use the Xuron rail clippers to remove the spikes by simply grabbing the spikes in the clippers and snipping them off. Each one takes less than a second. The spikes come off cleanly and I don’t need to do any filing.
I have a Walthers catalog that is a couple of years old, but it lists Atlas Flex Track End Ties. The description is “use these individual ties to fill gaps between track sections.” I don’t know if they are filed down to go under rail joiners or not.
I have kept “old” brass flex & sectional track around for purposes such as this, and; older track is readily available “in lots” on eBay.
Any leftover rail can be painted & stacked, visibly stored off the ground by a couple of those creosoted rail-ties, ready to be picked up by track repair crews in your industrial or switching yards.
Like some of the above posters, I keep my old “waste” ties and use them for just this purpose. You need to scrape away the molded on spike heads (or, in the case of Atlas, the molded on shoe boxes) so that you can slip them in from the side.
But to answer your precise question, Shinohara makes a $2.49 package of plastic ties for just this purpose and it is not expensive. Called “spacer ties” they are brown and meant for code 100 track but I have used them under 83 with no problems. Walthers part 669-175.
I shave mine with the exacto knife chisel blade with the bevel side on the ties . I turn them on their side and and cut downward and flip and do the other side, no cuts on the fingersand no sanding . takes some practice but it works for me. Jim.
Ah ha! This generated more responses and help than I thought it might. Thanks for the tips and leads.
I have seen the Atlas end ties…they are extra ties if one needs them, but still have to be trimmed and thinned.
I see the Shinohara spacer ties on the web. I may try to get some…
But I think I will try a jig and my dremel first…that sounds like a good idea. I just thought it might result in some frayed thickened matted bit of melted plastic on the ties, but I probably have some sort of abrasive tip that will work…or I will try trimming with an exacto in a jig.
I have found that using a coarse round rat tail file about a quarter inch in diameter works for me. I just file a trough through the spikes and tie plates on the top, in line with the rail. That way the tops are even with the tops of the rest of the ties, and the rail and joiners sit down in the trough.
I do the same for ‘detached’ ties - except that I use a round file originally obtained as part of a chainsaw sharpening kit. Two seconds with a hobby knife cleans off the ‘beard’ of chewed plastic.
For ties that are still on the tie strip, I use a chisel blade in a hobby knife handle and cut lengthwise of the tie. Looks a little neater - but once in place, ballasted and weathered, who’s likely to notice?
If you have the Xuron rail clippers or something similar, I encourage you to try that. A lot easier to work with than plugging in a Dremel and you can work right over the spots on your layout where you need to place the pieces that you are trimming.