Scale Tie plates "display track"

[smokebox]

Hello everyone, It's been along time !!


I am about to make some scale tie plates for a section of display track in 1" scale 4 3/4" gauge and would like to know if anyone would happen to know the angle that would be used on the outside.
I plan on milling a channel down the center, for the rail to sit in,then putting an angle on the edges or would you just leave them flat?
The base of the rail is .450" and made from t-6061 rail, from real trains ( I think )
My ties should turn out nice, they are cedar, they are 1' wide 3/4" thick that has been hit with ebony minwax stain, when I'm ready I plan to hit them with paint thinner or maybe a fast shot of spray type paint stripper to grey them out some. A friend of mine from the net in IL gave me a box of galvanized scale spikes, I dropped them in some birchwood casy blue and they picked up a nice black after sitting for a day. As far as the rail, I'm unsure if a plum brown solution will take to the Alum. might hit it with Aluminum black and airbrush them from there.
When I'm done I plan to set the track in gravel chips and put them in a tray with molding around it.
The tie plates will be the first thing to try with my new mini mill. It is in the mail!! LOL
So ?? Any thoughts or comments on the display track??

Thanks,

Rob Smokebox Wright

[Rick Henderson]

Smokebox,

When I laid track for a museum in TX, I learned about tie plate orientation rather quickly. I knew the cant angle was just over 1% and I found this explanation online, which should give you most of what you need: The part of the plate under the rail base is tapered, setting the cant [camber or super elevation angle] of the rail, an inward rotation from the vertical. The usual slope is one in forty ( 1.4 degrees ). The top surface of the plate has one or two shoulders that fit against the edges of the base of the rail. The double-shoulder type is currently used. Older single-shoulder types were adaptable for various rail widths, with the single shoulder positioned on the outside (field side) of the rails. Most plates are slightly wider on the field side, without which the plates tend to cut more into the outsides of the tie, reducing cant angle.