Opinion Please!

[Kevin Strong]

I put this together the other day on Facebook comparing the tie sizes of the various commercial tracks:

Micro Engineering code 83 - 6' long, 6" wide, 21" center-to-center
Peco On30 code 100 - 5' long, 9" wide, 21" center-to-center
Atlas HO code 83 - 4' 6" long, 4" wide, 9" center-to-center
Atlas HO code 100 - 4' 6" long, 6" wide, 14" center-to-center

For a little perspective on the prototypes, I couldn't find a whole lot of reference for 2' gauge ties, but the WW&F went with 5' long ties that had a width and depth of 5" (The author of the sources referred to them as "5x5x5"). They had originally tried 4' long ties, but they proved too unstable.

The 3' gauge ties ranged from 5' - 7' long seemingly depending on availability. There was a chart published in the Narrow Gauge Gazette which surveyed the ties used by western narrow gauge lines. There was little (if any) consistency on any one railroad.

Later,

K