Thanks Alan, well we now have a method!
Greg
To clear up any confusion, the ties in the photo are what Aristocraft call their EURO style.
If you blow up the photo earlier in the thread you will see that on each tie (with the exception of the end tie) there is a silgle spike (bolt) on the outside of the rail. On an Aristo EURO strip there is only one spike (bolt) on the outside of the tie. Most Aristo USA ties have 2 spiles on the outside of the rail.
Below is a photo showing Bachmann, Aristo Euro, and Aristo USA ties.
Hope that helps.
Stan
Thanks Stan!
Here is what I have. These are two 10 diamter curves. I think they are both 10’. Anyway…
Here is the same two 10 footers next to one of my 20’ diamter curves.
Matt
I cannot blow up the photos enough to see the spike detail to be 100% sure but the following is a very good guess.
In the top photo the ties on the track on the right are Euro. I believe the track on the left has UAS style ties as the ties are narrower and closer together.
Likewise on the bottom photo the ties on the left two track section are Euro and the track on the right has USA ties.
The USA ties are closer together, thinner, and have two spikes on the outsides of the rails. The Euro ties are spaced further apare, are wider and except for the end ties have a single spike on the outside of the rails.
Hope that helps
Stan
Dang, I thought photobucket let you blow pics up. Sorry.
Thanks for the input Stan!
I never could figure how to measure tie spacing, but for me I can tell the thicker ties are euro and thinner are usa. And for whatever reason, I prefer the look of the euro ties. Which, the vast majority of my track is. I probably only have a couple pieces of track with the usa ties.
Oh, all my track is Aristo and USA trains too. I don’t have any bachmann.
So the picture below has 8 spikes per tie, 4 spikes per tie plate… so the count appears to be the same as Aristo USA style track, but the spikes are different, my 2 spikes per side of the rail are in a diagonal arrangement at first glance… maybe this track is USA Trains track?
Maybe earlier Aristo track had a different mold for the tie strips? Seems unlikely.
Greg
Matt Russell said:
Here’s what I’m dealing with. This is the worst one. The other pieces have just a random tie broken here or there. I did purchase them used and they were advertised as being a little brittle. All I did was pull that piece out of the box and the ties just disintegrated. Luckily RLD will have some new track in this week! I’ll fix what I can with these and hope they are fine.
Greg Elmassian said:
So the picture below has 8 spikes per tie, 4 spikes per tie plate… so the count appears to be the same as Aristo USA style track, but the spikes are different, my 2 spikes per side of the rail are in a diagonal arrangement at first glance… maybe this track is USA Trains track?
Maybe earlier Aristo track had a different mold for the tie strips? Seems unlikely.
Greg
Matt Russell said:
Here’s what I’m dealing with. This is the worst one. The other pieces have just a random tie broken here or there. I did purchase them used and they were advertised as being a little brittle. All I did was pull that piece out of the box and the ties just disintegrated. Luckily RLD will have some new track in this week! I’ll fix what I can with these and hope they are fine.
Greg
The ties in the above photo are Euro ties
Starting from the lower left you will see that the first 3 ties have a single spike on the outside of the rail and 2 spikes on the inside (actually bolts)
The 4 tie from the lower left is an end tie formed to allow space for railjoiners. The tie on each end of a 1 ft section of Euro ties has 4 spikes on each tie plate.
When you see both tie strips side by side it is really easy to tell the difference if you look closely at the spike detail which is dirrerent.
The number of ties in a 1 ft strip is also different (11 Euro 14 USA) as is the width of the tie. The Euro ties are .44" wide and the USA ties are .33" wide.
Hope that clears up the confusion.
Stan