I’m starting to break back into the hobby after being absent for about 15 years. I do not mind investing time and patience in detail work.
Right now, my interest is not in starting a large layout, but instead practicing detail work. What I thought I would do is make an HO module and decide which parts of modeling it excite me and which parts make me miserable (Translation: find my limitations).
I’d like to spend some time practicing handlaying track on this module, and I am looking for a few recommendations.
I’ve done some research, and to me there appears to be two main camps regarding it. Those who use individual wood ties and those who use Central Valley plastic ties. I’m tempted to try my hand with wooden ties - but I’ve heard that wooden ties can be a maintenance problem due to susceptibility to environmental changes. Is it really something to worry about? Will the ties really expand/contract and make the rails look like mountain switchbacks? Or is that a gross exaggeration?
I’m leaning toward laying wooden ties (sanding them), then gluing the rails to them. Is this technique a good method to use? Should I be spiking the rails instead? I really like the appearance of the details available from Proto:87 and I would like to use them, eventually.
I’m sure I’ll end up with a thousand questions along the way … this is my humble beginning [:)]
The amount of contraction/expansion of wood ties is minuscule and undetectable. The mass and lengths are too small. And you are normally staining them and gluing the ties, which would retard reaction to very different humidity levels. I have used unstained redwood ties in a wide variety of environments without any problems from either the ties of the untreated Homasote.
OTOH, layout wooden benchwork, and in a very few cases the rail itself along its length, do move significantly enough to affect trackwork. But if you are starting with a module size, painting the wooden framework is sufficient for the modular clubs, who do encounter wide ranges of atmospheric moisture.
Which of many hand laying camps you should be in is a matter of personal preference, and to some extent, what kind of track you are modeling.
For my 1900-era short lines, tie plates and creosote
Except at turnouts where perfect rail alignment is critical, I’ve found sanding often unnecessary. Most commercial wood ties are fairly uniform in size, and except for well-maintained main tracks, prototype track often has some convolutions in its profile. If one’s roadbed is level and ties are uniform, you can skip sanding the ties except for your turnouts and where you want to have perfect-looking track. For the occasional errant tie, knock it level, replace it, or avoid laying it in the first place.
Edit – I have hand laid rail as small as code 40 following the above practice without ill effect on operations.
I bought prestained wood ties, which have been down 5 years with no problem, nor do I think there will be over the long haul. I’ve never heard of any expansion/contraction problems from the many others who have handlayed track.
I built a 3’x 5"x 3/4" plywood jig using parallel balsa strips glued (vertical to the length of the plywood) to allow the correct spacing and positioning of the ties. I then cut the balsa strips down the middle and removed the middle balsa, to allow a 3’ long slot the width of 1/2" masking tape down the middle of the jig. I put a 3’ strip of masking tape sticky side up in this long slot. I place enough ties for a 3’ length (or less) into the open places for the ties. I then spread white glue on my layout road bed. I pick up the masking tape, and have a long strip of wood ties, properly spaced which I lay over the glue (tape is now on top) and adjusted to my center line (or the end-of tie line on the road bed). When the glue has dried, I pull of the tape and now there are 3’ of ties waiting for rails. Fast and much easier than laying individual ties. Once in a while, I may leave out a tie, or glue a tie in crooked later. The jig was not my idea, but I read about it in MR or some such book.
I followed the advice of quite a few articles, and sanded my ties. I liked the weathering effect it left on the ties, and maybe touched up just a few with paint or stain if it took too much color off. I do know, before I sanded, using a level and checking the space under it when on top the ties… the ties were not all the same height and some space could be seen between the level and the tie on some. I first tried using bought unpainted wood ties and dying them, but decided it not worth the time to color and am satisfied with the bought precolored.
My only experience with handlaying HO-Scale track involved Tru-Scale Milled Roadbed® and that was on club trackage. Back in the early '80s I made a stab at handlaying Rail Craft Code 55 rail on one of my earliest N-Scale endeavors; I’m not a particularly impatient individual nor am I the most patient and I got down about 25 feet of track before running out of gas and switching over to Rail Craft Code 55 flex track where I have been ever since.
I didn’t try using PC board ties as advocated by Gordy Odegard and some others but instead laid my rail onto individual wood ties and ran my wiring up through the roadbed to make electrical connection soldered to rail joiners. Advancing age is forcing me to consider a return to HO-Scale; if this bears fruition my pike will, essentially, be a single track switching line with a Class 1 connection via offline storage. I have given some cursory thought to handlaying my track but under the microscope it is not really a viable economic consideration and I’m not sure of just how much labor-of-love I’m going to have left as I advance into my '70s; I figure its going to take close to six hundred dollars either way I decide to go and it will sure go considerably faster using flex track; I will continue to handlay my switches. I will use somebody’s Code 83 flex for my Class 1 connection. I’m not pressed at this time to make a decision in this regard.
I too want to go the route of handlaid track. I’d be interested to know if you are planning to build a standard size module with the purpose of eventually connecting it to another/group of modules.
I was looking at Micro Engineering code 70 and 83 track with pc-board ties. I am especially interested in non-standard turn-outs for yard work and maintenance facilities.
I’m cheap enough that I am cutting my own wooden ties from basswood, laying rails ripped from old Atlats code 100 NS flex, and using ME or Walthers spikes, whichever I can find for less. (This is On30, by the way.)
I am using a few PC board ties, mostly for turnouts, but I’ve had no trouble with wooden ties at all.
It looks great (if you use 4 spikes per tie, like the prototype), too.
Well, I’m debating whether or not to build another house. I’d like to do a little crafting, but nothing huge until I decide my long term plan.
I have a pretty good grasp as to what the basement will look like in the new house, so I thought I’d work with modules that would work in either location.
I’m going to pick a section, work and detail it – then move on to the next. I wasn’t really planning on doing standard modules.
I thought this would be an enjoyable task since I am not in a hurry to lay hundreds of feet of track right now, and I might find my personal limit to patience versus detailing!