A couple of questions if I may.

1) Do the EZ track turnouts (Part #44131 and 44130) have internal switch motors like kato uni track or can I use tortois or similar?
2) If they have internal how do I hook them up to an NCE Power Cab system? Do I still need a controller, and if so which NCE controller do I need the "switch it" for slow motion or the "snap it" for twin coil

I tried the NMRA site and as you did, I also found it was down for some reason so I thought I would take advantage of the brain trust here.

Thank you very much for your input, the measurements are exactly as I needed.

You are also absolutely right the HO scale ties are not correct even if the gauge of the track is; however, the client I am designing the railroad for is building it for a children's hospital and he wants to use the Bachman EZ track to build the layout. It is not going to be a "proto" layout. He is doing a fantasy christmas village layout centered around the Department 56 "collectable" porcelain buildings. If this was going to be a true model railroad rather than a decorative holiday piece as a gift to the children's hospital I would use the Micro Engineering track as you suggested......but that is the great thing about model railroading, the person building the layout is king of his/her world and some want to recreate it in reality and some in fantasy. That is why they make vanilla, strawberry and chocolate ice cream.

Again thank you for the much needed measurements.

I need to know what the defacto standard is for tunnel portal width and height for On30 and what is the center to center parellel track spacing when using HO Scale EZ Track?

I can do the weathering. I also do kit building, scenery, wiring track plan design and full layout builds. Please go to my website at www.AffordableModelRailroads.com or email me directly at [email protected] and we can discuss fees and timeline.