Anyone know of tie plate sources that would work with Llagas creek code 250 rail? I bought a bunch from California and Oregon Coast a few years back and am finally running low, but can’t remember who made them. The ones I’m looking for are have 4 holes per tie plate, and are about .264 x .460 with .055 h (rail width of ~ 5mm). Are those the same size as the ones offered by Hartford products? The pictures I see of the Micro Engineering ones and the Ozark Miniatures only have 3 holes per tie plate. Oh ya they are white metal tie plates too.
As a side note anyone know if a manufacturer makes extended tie plates for turnouts?
Thanks, Craig
Thanks for the info. I’ve looked at switchcrafters but I’m not sure if the Micro Engineering tie plates (both 3 and 4 holes) are the same size as what I’ve got. If anyone has some that they can measure for me real quick it would be helpful.
Craig
Craig:
Two things:
- I’m certain Bob Hartford will tell you the dimensions of his tie plates. He can be reached by email at:
–or by phone–
(919) 471-5937
- Most railroads were built in stages, with different materials used at various times. From a prototype standpoint, it would be perfectly acceptable for ties, rail and accessories like tie plates to vary from point to point on the RR.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Thanks for the info. I send Bob an email. I’ll see what happens.
Craig
Craig,
Give SwitchCrafaters a call and ask for a couple of sample pieces. I am certain he will accommodate.
Bob C.
Bob,
I will have to give that a try too. I found out that I could possibly use some evergreen styrene strips to make longer tie plates too! The tie plates I have hold the rail .030 above the tie, and Evergreen makes a .030x.250 strips so I should be able to shape some of my own for the longer turnout tie plates.
Craig
Does Llagas Creek no longer make them? I bought a bag of 100 years ago, still have some. I can measure them up if you like.
I think the ones that llagas made in the past were a plug type tie plate. Ie drill a hole and put the plastic tie plate in the first. Llagas no longer sells them.
Not sure what you mean by that description, but the ones I have with a Llagas Creek label on the bag are cast white metal with 4 holes. They still might not sell them any more. I bought these 5-6 years ago.
Oh, I was thinking of ones that I’ve seen that are plastic and not white metal. Here’s a link to a picture I found of what I’m talking about. (how do you embed a picture on this forum?)
(http://www.mylargescale.com/1stclass/DavidLeech/IMG_2753.jpg)
I didn’t see any listing for tie plates on the llagas creek website so I’m assuming that they don’t sell them anymore. *edit oh that was easy it was automatic!
Thanks Craig. Those are pretty funky. I suppose it was faster than hand spiking, but if you are going to bother with individual plates then I’d like them to look more scale like. Probably why they were discontinued.
When I first saw them that’s what I thought too. And you would have to predrill a hole for the plug to go into and make sure the holes corresponded to the tie plates and track in gauge. Seems like a lot of work.
Craig
Bruce from Switchcrafters got back to me and measured the Micro Engineering tie plates. Here’s the info in case anyone else is interested.
The ME 332 tie plates measure;
W (direction of the rail) = 0.324"
L (perpendicular to the rail) = 0.617"
H = 0.045"
Rail foot print is 7mm
The ME 250 tie plates measure;
W = 0.245"
L = 0.514"
H = 0.046"
Rail foot print is 5.42mm
Bob from Hartford products got back to me, and now I finally know the source of my mysterious tie plates. They are from Hartford products.
For future reference for those interested here’s the measurements.
.264 x .460 with .055 h (rail width of 5mm) part number HP-35 Code 215 Tie plates
Thanks for all your help. I should be getting started here on my #9 turnout shortly when all of my supplies arrive so be on the look out!
Craig