Greg Hunter posted a feally great video of how he makes flex track using wood ties and bending over eustucheon pins for spikes, i cant seem to find it at the moment…
Here is the link to Greg’s post:
http://largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/21363/how-i-make-track-video
I also think his method is great.
Jose Morais
Headmaster of the Lapa furada RR
Kevin Strong said:
If you’re going to hand spike your ties, (a) pre-drill the holes, and (b) if possible, use spikes that are longer than the ties are thick.
Pre-drilling’s a ruddy pain in the butt in the beginning, but it greatly reduces the spikes being pushed out by the ties as they swell with moisture. (It also makes pushing the spikes in a whole lot easier.) Making the spikes longer than the ties almost guarantees they’ll stay in place. Spikes are pushed out by the wood swelling against the pointed end of the spike. If that’s below the tie, the wood will swell around the shaft of the spike, but there’s no sloped surface for it to push against, so they stay in place.
. . .
Later,
K
Here in the wet and rainy mid-atlantic, I found that steel spikes would rust and swell into the wood. When I came to take them out 10 years later, the heads broke rather than the spikes pulling out.
Which is why we don’t recommend stainless spikes. Unless they are long enough to go right through.
Pre-drilling is very helpful, but I stopped doing plain track and just concentrated on the switches. I used an old Dremel cordless to make the pilot holes.
Incidentally, here in Annapolis there is a lot of businesses doing restoration of old wooden boats, so we have an “Exotic Lumber” store that carries all sorts of stuff - probably redwood.