On30 Ties

[jkemp]

On30 Ties

Hope that this isn't too far off topic.

I'm not yet a a point where I am ready to lay my own track.

As of recently, I have probably read half-a-dozen great On30 articles on the Internet, where the layout owner has taken HO scale track, pulled or cut out the HO ties, placed the widely spaced offset On30 ties underneath, and their track looks great!!!!

The only thing missing from all these articles, is no one ever list what ties they used or where they were purchased.   

If this is something you are doing on your layout, or know of someone else who is, please share your On30 tie information.

Thanks for looking,

[Len]

This place has a lot of stuff for handlaying, or modifying, track: http://www.handlaidtrack.com/wt-on30-c

Len

[jkemp]

Thanks Len,

that was actually one of the places I had stumbled across.

I guess to more focus my question, is anyone else doing this, removing the ties from HO scale track and adding On30 ties?

If you are, specifically, what are you using?

Thank you,

[Anubis]

Hi there Jkemp,

I'm not sure how far you want to go with this HO to On30 track conversion, but if you choose to use the Peco On30 track, the sleepers are quite nicely spaced as is.

However, I also 'cheated' a bit, on my On30 layout. I used a lot of existing Peco HO track, and removed every second or third sleeper and spaced the remaining ones at varying distances from each other. This gives a rustic, not-very-well-maintained appearance.

After the final ballasting was done, the apparent length (or lack of length!) of the sleepers is not even evident, unless one looks very closely.

Just my thoughts.....

John

[jkemp]

Hello Anubis,

You hit the nail right on the head.

I already own several packs of code 83 flex track from Micro.Engineering that has the "somewhat" random, wide spaced ties.

It goes without stating that there is a vast wealth of nickel.silver code 83 HO scale track out there, that should connect up to the existing On30 flex track I already own.

I am a recent convert, coming from HOn3, so I appreciate all the other post I see here on this forum.

Thanks again

[p51]

Micro Engineering track is great looking but it's pretty fragile. I had two turnouts snap on me when putting the blue points in to control them. Real nightmare having to de-solder and replace them.
If I had to do it over, I might have used Peco track.
I had to use two mainline curved turnouts and went with Shinohara as nobody makes curved On30 ones. I didn't do anything to hide the HO ties, so those two spots look a little 'off' where they are...
But either way, better to use purpose-made On30 than spend a lot of time trying to convert HO stuff...

[dutchbuilder]

If you apply a lot of ballast an weeds nobody notices that it is H0 track.
BTW i use PECO track with great satisfaction.

Ton

[Len]

These guys have all the jigs, ties, tools, etc., needed to build your own On30 curved turnouts, in a variety of radius combinations:
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/fixtures-on30-curved-turnouts-6

Len

[Kevin Strong]

I'm using Micro-Engineering. I would agree that you need to be a bit careful with it, but the results are well worth it.



Here's a list I did comparing the various commercial tracks and how their ties scale in 1:48.

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

With regard to the prototype, much depends on the look you're going after. The only reference I could find to tie lengths on the 2' gauge railroads was a mention that they were 5' long, 5" wide, and 5" thick. (I forget which railroad that was.) On the 3' gauge, ties ranged in length from 6' (some outliers were slightly narrower) to full-length standard gauge (8' 6"). Center-to-center spacing on the ties hovered around 20" give or take an inch in pretty much all cases I've seen.

Later,

K

[dutchbuilder]

As i understand ME is more US prototypical, wider ties.
PECO ties are less wide and more English prototypical.
If you are a rivet counter go for ME.
If you don't care and want robust track, go for PECO.

Ton