building high quality 3.5" gauge track for display

[Harlock]

I am getting closer to the day when I'll have some wheels and axles to push down a track and go "whee!" As I get closer to having parts that can sit on a track, I've started to think about building a nice small section of track for the workbench and later for display in the house.

I'm looking at pictures of Ed and Kozo's track from www.thms.tedatum.com/BBoard/Hume01.html and wondering if that's 1" scale rails or gauge 1 rails.

I have discovered from this board and other places that no one seems to make 3 1/2" gauge track ready to go, you have to adapt either of the above with home made ties and gauge it yourself.

Looking further at the photos, it looks like scale-cut pieces of wood with one nail in each side of the rail per tie, so 4 nails total per tie? This seems to look nice. There do not appear to be any tie plates or anything like that.

Is there a particular dimension on the wood that approximates the original? Can long sticks of it be bought and bandsawed to length? What to stain the wood with? What kind of wood to use?

What is a good source for those nails (scale spikes)? What size are they?

[siggy]

From my previous post on this subject:

Re: Who is building/has built a Kozo engine?
« Reply #58 on Aug 29, 2006, 6:46pm »

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I purchased the brass rail at my local hobby shop. It's standard LGB rail that comes in 1.5 meter lengths (LGB part number 10005). The brass was relatively expensive but they have it in aluminum too. I cut the ties out of cedar and stained them then spiked the rail to the ties using Micro Engineering large track spikes.

My ties are 9/16 x 7/16 x 6 on 1 5/8 centers. I stained the wood using Minwax Jacobean 2750 stain.

When you put the spikes in be sure to stagger the spikes. Put both outside spikes to the left of center and both inside spikes to the right of center otherwise the ties could possibly "slide" on the rail instead of remaining perpendicular to it. You can see my track at thms.tedatum.com/BBoard/Sigler01.html . If you look real closely at the last pic you can see what I mean about staggering the spikes.

Robert

[Harlock]

Thanks for the dimensions! And the tip about the staggered spiking.

I think the aluminum rail might look a bit more prototypical, although it matches your unpainted brass for now.

How do you measure the track gauge? I remember seeing a diagram about that a long time ago but I have no idea where I saw it. Is 3 1/2" from the center of the rail profile or from the inside edge?

P.S. your A3 looks great so far.

--Mike

[siggy]

harlock said:

How do you measure the track gauge?

The track should be 3.5 - 3.563 from inside to inside on the straight or 3.531 - 3.594 on a curve. When I did my track I made a couple of aluminum spacer blocks that fit over the rails to hold them the proper distance apart while I spiked them down. That way the rail's dimensions are very accurate and consistent across the whole track section.

Robert

[Harlock]

I figured I'd make a track gauge that I can use any time I need to spike 3 1/2" gauge track. Thanks for the numbers. For now I will be making a straight piece of track.

--Mike

[Harlock]

Are the spikes square or round? Do you mean the medium spikes? The large ones are 1/2" long.

[Harlock]

I managed to find micro engineering aluminum rail and large track spikes at Verne's train shop in Santa Clara, CA. The large ones will indeed work out fine. We planed some pine boards to 7/16ths and cut 9/16s strips and then 6 inch sections on a table saw. All good so far...I have 40 ties now.

[Harlock]

Track is finished!

It's a good 'one weekend' project (if you completely clear out your weekend - heh.)

Thanks to Siggy for the tips. I have a photo gallery which serves as a brief 'how to' plus a number of PDF plans for templates and track.

The photo gallery is here:
www.pro-photography.net/gallery/displaytrack 3 pages, 23 photos.

Some drawings from Solidworks:

Here is the layout for the track, using Micro Engineering code 332 rail:
www.mojaveserver.info/forum-media/35gaugetrack.pdf

Here is the hole drilling template for the ties:
www.mojaveserver.info/forum-media/drill-template.pdf

Here is the track gauge as built:
www.mojaveserver.info/forum-media/as_built_track_gauge.pdf

Here is an improved track gauge I came up with that eliminates the need for a separate tie spacer and triangle square:
www.mojaveserver.info/forum-media/new-and-improved-track-gauge.pdf (3 page PDF) but has not been built and tested.

Since Siggy gave the tolerance as 3.5 - 3.565, I decided to make everything 3.52.

After receiving some more imput, I'll put everything into a single PDF and post it as a tutorial of one of many ways to make a piece of track. This is decent for short sections but you'd need a small army to make it practical for a layout.

One thing I didn't find out until after I was done is that you can get tie plates: www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mce/mce27101.htm Maybe next time.

[phutcheson]

Mike,

Fantastic job. Photos and drawings look great.

Thanks for sharing ... aren't these forums terrific.

And Siggy ... we owe you for all the help on this forum and direct emails.

Thanks,

Pat H

[wacopsc]

For a display track I used ceder ties and hit them with a sandblaster. It gave a real antique look as it cut into the softer wood between the growth rings and made the ties look 100 years old !

Best regards Paul

[GregMiller]

Robert stated above that:

Straight track should be gauged between 3.5 to 3.563.
Curve track should be gauged between 3.531 - 3.594.

I have seen other references that suggest a minimum curve radius = 15ft. Is this correct?

I was not able to find a reference for these dimensions online... where did they come from? Is there a standard that I have not found yet?

Thanks for your help.
Greg