Having been advised by more than one attendee at the recent invasion of the spiralling cost of 45mm gauge track, I’ve been prompted to contact a fellow gauge-oner, Terry Hines, and talk to him about his range of track products and components, well-known in UK and Europe, but obviously not in North America.
I’ll be passing on his words of wisdom - but whinemeal, please take a look at his website - http://www.tenmille.com/GScaleTrack.html
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Funny, no specifications on the dimensions on the rail, height, base, etc.
Greg
um. they have bull head and flat bottom rail.
"RAIL TYPES
There are two types of rail, Bullhead and Flat Bottom (ignoring very early types). Before changing to Flat Bottom rail in the 1950‘s Bullhead rail was widely used on Britain’s standard gauge railways. Most European and American railways used this type of rail much earlier.
Model rail like Tenmille rail is normally measured by its height or sometimes a code number. Our bullhead rail is 5mm or code 200 and our Flat Bottom is 5.5mm or code 215 (rail height measured in thousands of an inch). When building a railway it is better to use the same track system throughout as mixing types can lead to problems.
Tenmille supplies track systems for both Standard and Narrow Gauge railways. 32mm gauges use Bullhead rail where as 45mm gauges use both Bull Head and Flat Bottom. Both rail can be used in conjunction with rail chairs/sleepers or pinned to wood sleepers as a rail spiked track."
Height of the rail (code 332 for example) and width of the foot.
Where did you find that on the site? It’s not on the G scale track page, it’s not on the about us page.
OK, found it way down on building the railroad page… whew… bad site design. So all their rail is code 200?
TAC, you might have wanted to post this right away, locks out a lot of us.
Greg
Well, in fairness, Greg, my post was in the nature of a general comment rather than a detailed and in-depth look at track. Terry Hines came back to me today, advising me that he will be looking into the cost of shipping say 20 lengths of 45mm NG track in component form to North America - I’ll post his response as soon as ever I get it. Not only is component track less bulky to ship, it is a whole lot cheaper than built-up.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
PS - Fred - if you can make contact with Grant out at Cold Lake, please point him at this post will’ya?
'kay. Got the resplonment from Terry Hines [Mr Tenmille] -
Hi Tac. We have worked some prices it is slightly more expensive to send track in kit form than made up. This is because it would have to go in two parcels. The cost to send 20 x 1.5metre lengths in kit form is - £666.49. To send made up track would be - £650.80. Both prices include shipping. We look forward to your confirmation. Many thanks Terry/Tenmille
Hmmmmmmmmm. It’s STILL $10 a foot, made-up.
Not such a bargain after all, eh?
Anybody interested? Let Terry Hines at Tenmille know.
Can’t blame me for trying to help.
tac, ig. ken the GFT and the Makin’ Tracks Boys
I have some of the Tenmille G stuff mixed in with regular LGB code 332 and handmade code 332 sections. Tenmille is Code 332 but a different profile from LGB/Aristo/AMS/Bachmann/Piko/Trainline and other cross compatibles. Due to this it needs special small plastic adaptors with brass “sole” inserts to mate with the other makes listed. You have to use their regular joiners to connect it to itself due to the different section. Hilmann’s did compatible over rail (not joiner) clamps, there might be some still around. They can only be used to join Tenmille to Tenmille not as adapters.
If you use a track bender you may need to fit different profile rollers, to match the rail’s, to bend this track. Luckily the GRS bender I have has this option. The sleepers are a rather square section compared to other makes but builds up like LGB flexi-track. This may notice if you are concerned about these things. The sleeper sections are a snugger fit to the rail than LGB which can be a bit annoying when building up or doing track maintainance. Works well though, I have had a limited amount (5 metres) down in the garden for about 7 years now (bought about the time LGB went belly up and there was the “Great Rail Famine”. Guess why I bought it ?). Not to be confused with other UK made, Peco code 210, for G1 (10 mm, geddit !) enthusiasts. Max.
Back to my observation about the web site, I can only find where it says it is code 200.
A “once over” on the web site might help sales.
Greg
Greg, first two lines of the website product description - “This track system is similar to LGB but uses a slightly different rail profile. It can be joined to LGB using rail joiner adaptor GS011.” While not explicit it does imply that it is compatible in height if not profile. i.e. Code 332.
I’d hoped that my observations as a user, above, would provide some useful clarifications to those that might be interested in this product range. OK, Tenmille might not be as astute as some makers in web based promotion of their products but they are a very long established and regarded member of the UK 10 mm (Tenmille (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif))/16 mm hobby scene. More artisan makers, say like Sunset Valley Rail Road, than big box shifters like Accucraft. But I see your point looking from the outside in. Max.
Or there is Plan B: shop around at your local Garden RR Club, if there is one. Else check nearby clubs. SVGRS currently has some LGB and Aristocraft code 332 brass track in various lengths, some LGB brass rail, some Canadian Aluminum code 332 rail, and a pile of switches, crossings, etc. We got them through donations, and are selling them really cheap, especially since we don’t ship them. You gotta be within 75 miles of Sacramento!
In the UK there is a lot of used 45 mm/Code 332 track to be had, mostly in good “weathered” condition at around c£3/c$4.50c per foot. Both set track and flexi’, all makes. Points, crossings and other specialised track components still fetch a reasonable premium.
Probably this is in part down to this now being a “mature” hobby with a resulting growth in “legacy” sales. Also as a result of the economic downturn that started 8 years ago and advances in technology with resulting massive reduction in middle income jobs (hobby’s heartland ?) causing distress sales. It’s very noticeable that the main dealers over here have rapidly increased there pre-owned inventories over new product in the past 3-4 years. A worldwide trend ? Might explain some of the manufacturer failure/distress in the mid-range product area. Max
‘…within 75 miles of Sacramento…’ 
That’s really useful for anybody who DOESN’T live within 75 miles of Sacramento, like 99.999999999999999999999999999% of us here on this site.
tac
Max Winter said:
In the UK there is a lot of used 45 mm/Code 332 track to be had, mostly in good “weathered” condition at around c£3/c$4.50c per foot. Both set track and flexi’, all makes. Points, crossings and other specialised track components still fetch a reasonable premium.
Probably this is in part down to this now being a “mature” hobby with a resulting growth in “legacy” sales. Also as a result of the economic downturn that started 8 years ago and advances in technology with resulting massive reduction in middle income jobs (hobby’s heartland ?) causing distress sales. It’s very noticeable that the main dealers over here have rapidly increased there pre-owned inventories over new product in the past 3-4 years. A worldwide trend ? Might explain some of the manufacturer failure/distress in the mid-range product area. Max
Good post, Max. Very apposite for the UK, but not a real fix for our friends over the Great Water…
Our ride-on railway - the Fenland Light Railway in East Anglia - recenty bought a complete raised 45mm double track layout for peanuts - a ‘legacy’ railway. Those brave souls who chose to spend the ‘summer’ in yUK, rather than go galivanting over to Oregon or Canada like any sensible person would, given half the chance, have spent much time between downpours setting it up, bless 'em.
Making me feel REALLY bad in the whinemeal…
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Max Winter said:
Greg, first two lines of the website product description - “This track system is similar to LGB but uses a slightly different rail profile. It can be joined to LGB using rail joiner adaptor GS011.” While not explicit it does imply that it is compatible in height if not profile. i.e. Code 332.
I’d hoped that my observations as a user, above, would provide some useful clarifications to those that might be interested in this product range. OK, Tenmille might not be as astute as some makers in web based promotion of their products but they are a very long established and regarded member of the UK 10 mm (Tenmille (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif))/16 mm hobby scene. More artisan makers, say like Sunset Valley Rail Road, than big box shifters like Accucraft. But I see your point looking from the outside in. Max.
ALL of my Tenmille track, and that of my BIL, is Code 332. It happily accepts ANY brand of model on it, from 1/32 scale Aster to 7/8th Accucraft.
tac
Actually tac, not to draw this out, but there are many adapters from different manufacturers that connect different height rails.
So, as compared to the depth of description on all other sites that sell rail, “similar” implies nothing to me as a consumer, and furthermore, why are you arguing when it’s a simple task just to state the MOST SIGNIFICANT dimension of the product?
Example: I have a car that’s similar to a Mercedes Benz S class 6.3 liter… oh, it is a Yugo and it does not have a V12 and won’t go 200 mph and is not a quality car, but it is SIMILAR, it has 4 wheels.
They (Tenmille) are “famous” to me, as I have heard the name many times, and having a confusing or lacking web site in these days is actually inexcusable, and worse for a well known, established business.
If I cannot discern the height of the rail for “G” sale in seconds, then the site is poor. The site actually states code 200 in one place.
Anyway, I gave up on the site, too much information scattered in different places. It was NOT fun to navigate.
Greg
Greg, I’M not arguing about anything here.
I was simply trying to help out a few pals by checking if there was a way of getting track directly from a manufacturer in UK than buying it in the US/Can from the usual dealers, not trying to cause an international trade war or rip the manufacturer a new one because of the inadequacies of his website.
I’m out of this conversation.
tac
Help them out by diplomatically suggesting to them to improve their web site.
The only problem I had getting around their site was figuring out what sleepers and chairs were! Their “G scale” track is code 330, the gauge 1 is the smaller stuff. Their price though, is right in line with everyone else then you have to pay to ship it over the pond. The best thing (for me) that they have going though is their tenmille ground throw. After currency exchange they are about $6.50 each which beats the hell outta the $14 people are asking here.
I would like to get my hands on their ties or “sleepers” and see if they fit my rail so I could replace some bad sections.
Terry
Well, I’m very happy to read that somebody got something positive out of the post. There’s a lesson learned here, folks, and it was me that learned it.
@Terry Burr - PM me so that I can send you a short section of Tenmille ties for you to try. With that the ‘chairs’ are integral -
tac
