Hello all;
I'm, like many, planning a new layout and am currently in the process of doing due diligence on / experimenting with various track making parts. Once I've decided, I'll make a larger purchase.
On the track front, I stumbled across Central Valley's tie strips a year or two ago, put it out of my mind, then came across them again in the last six months or so. This time I'm closer to building, so rather than just look at photos and wonder how easy / hard they are to use, etc. I decided to buy the sample pack that contains all three types they produce and experiment.
- Mainline (9')
- Branchline
- Mainline 8'6" Ties
I haven't seen a lot of images of these outside of the CV site, and since I have seen a fair number of posts (i.e. interest) about these on this board, I thought I'd share some photos.
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All are common in that they come in 1 foot lengths with the ties at either end molded half thickness. Given this is styrene, you simply glue the top half of the tie at the end of one strip to the bottom half of the tie at the end of the next strip. I had this pictured completely wrong in my head, so I'm glad I bought these - I like the way this works. As a side note, the end ties have little nubs for indexing, which speeds assembly, but these nubs are not the same from type to type - i.e. you can't index one type to another (you'd have to cut the nubs off - no biggie, but I'm curious as to why it was done this way)
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The end result can be bent into impressively small radiuses (the track around the radius of the image is about a 21" radius, for reference):
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Cont...
Fastening rail to the ties is NOT common from type to type. Central valley recommends that you either spike or glue rail to the Branchline and 9' Mainline ties. The 8'6" ties are more challenging; the spike detail and rail clamp detail is quite tall, after laying the rail into the tie plates, the design is for the user to use a small nailset or like tool and bend the "spikes" over the rail. At first this sounded pretty interesting. After fastening the 3' of rail in the next photo, I was WORN OUT!
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It actually held very well, until my daughter, in a sudden fit of interest in what I was doing, picked it up and bent it into a 8" (or so) radius. It held until I tried to straighten it out!
I personally like the 8'6" look because of the random set of the ties this way and that from centerline. The 9' look too long for a 1930's theme, though they are spaced on wider centers than the 8'6". The 8'6" ties also have quite a bit of rail clamp detail on them, more than I need, but that can be trimmed off.
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I'll comment on the laying properties of these in more detail if I decide on this product for my track (and I'm leaning that way)
Matt
Did you use their C81 rail?
nkp_174 Wrote:Did you use their C81 rail?
Hi Michael,
No, I used Micro Engineering code 70 rail. When I build the layout, I'll be using ME code 70, 83, and some 55.
Actually, the last time I was at Central Valley's site, I don't recall seeing a lot of copy on the code 81. Possibly because I wasn't looking for it. Even the gentleman I spoke to didn't mention it.
Matt
If I remember right CV no longer sells the Code 81 rail. They used to have it listed on their web site a year or so ago but it no longer shows up. Some where I have the address of the guy who had the rail made and he still sells it. It is very nice rail with a very fine web between the base and the rail head which makes it look more like code 70 rail. Seeing as it is .081" tall it mates well with code 83 as it only takes a few light passes of a file to even out the joint. I bought three 99' bundles of the code 81 rail when the ME code 83 was a little hard to find. I was going to use it for a switching layout but right now I am thinking of using for my roundhouse, engine service part of my new layout.
One thing I found interesting about the code 81 rail is it will work in a Fast Tracks turnout jig for ME code 83 rail ( may work in the code 70 jig as well ) with no problems. I made one turnout with it and it turned out great and was in gauge as it should be.
Wayne Reid
Wayne R Wrote:I
One thing I found interesting about the code 81 rail is it will work in a Fast Tracks turnout jig for ME code 83 rail ( may work in the code 70 jig as well ) with no problems. I made one turnout with it and it turned out great and was in gauge as it should be.
Wayne Reid
I remember a discussion with Tim about this. Basically base of the rail is the same width when it comes to cd 70 & cd 83 rail. I've built cd 70 t.o.'s in my Cd 83 jig no problems. I imagine it works the other way around too.
tetters Wrote:Wayne R Wrote:I
One thing I found interesting about the code 81 rail is it will work in a Fast Tracks turnout jig for ME code 83 rail ( may work in the code 70 jig as well ) with no problems. I made one turnout with it and it turned out great and was in gauge as it should be.
Wayne Reid
I remember a discussion with Tim about this. Basically base of the rail is the same width when it comes to cd 70 & cd 83 rail. I've built cd 70 t.o.'s in my Cd 83 jig no problems. I imagine it works the other way around too.
Tetters has it right. I've heard this from two sources, both of which where authorized sellers of FastTracks equipment (and both of which I forget! One may have been the housitanic website). One source told me that ME code 83 actually has a slightly *narrower* base than code 70. I suspect that both codes are formed from the same stock, and the extra height of 83 "borrows" metal from the base in the rolling process. Just a guess though.
An interesting side effect is that ME code 70 joiners are reported to work better on the narrower base of code 83 rail and the wider code 83 joiners work better on the wider code 70 base! White is black!
Unfortunately, I only have code 70 components at this time, or I'd confirm; but I'm willing to accept the idea since I recall my mis-remembered source to be solid, and in my logic world, it makes sense.
I purchased a Fast Tracks jig last month, and chose to get the code 70 version for this reason.
<edit> I believe I found the information regarding rail base and joiners on Fast Track's Forum. And while I can't dig up the joiners piece, a chart with rail dimensions (including the base width) can be found in the second post here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.handlaidtrack.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=840&start=0">http://www.handlaidtrack.com/forums/vie ... 40&start=0</a><!-- m -->
Matt
C70, Matt, you are a good man! Any HO NKP stuff I do will be with C70 rail. (unless someone comes out with a more realistic C76 rail to depict the NKP's 115lb rail
) Similarly, my On3 South Park will utilize C70 rail...since I have no plans to run Rio Grande 2-8-2s, it ought to hold up.
Michael
Hi All. I just received a small order of the 8'-6" CV ties and I'm anxious to start laying track. Forgive me Lads, I'm getting old and I read somewhere what size of nail set works the best for 'bending' over the spikes molded into the ties......but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw that info.
Does anybody know what size nail set works best for this?
Just did a search for info and came up with a Stanley 2/32 nail set. Now I feel REALLY old
. Maybe this will be helpful to somebody else here too.
Cheers;