ties for tubular track

Do you want to make or buy?  If you're patient you can buy and not have to pay too much.

Mike

I've got a bag of about 38 3-R black rubber O-31ties you can have for the postage.

Please email if interested.

I made mine from craft sticks and painted them flat brown. The picture shows a section of my portable with Lionel and K-Line 0-27 track with the craft stick ties. The brown I used is Rustoleum flat brown spray. I used Elmers professional wood glue to attach them to the track.

Similar to Mike D, I cut the round ends off of popsicle sticks, swirled them in a thinned black paint pan, and dried them on paper towels.  This was 40 years ago when I was 14 and I made hundreds of them.  I used some this year as shown in picture.  This is O27 track, also - old track came with black ties, newer track has brown.  I just scoot the ties under the track and ballast them in place.  They don’t reach the rail bottom - so for O, Mike’s method of gluing to bottom of rails may also be better.  Enjoy!

Those look really great Mike,

I have been thinking about plunging into this myself, because my track work on the layout is totally finished.

But, with around 75 feet of track, and around 8 rails per foot, I would be looking at 600 cross ties!   I just don't see how people do this.  I guess I could do about a foot a day, but that would take almost 3 months.  :-O

Mannyrock

@Hannibal-St Joseph RR posted:

They don’t reach the rail bottom - so for O, Mike’s method of gluing to bottom of rails may also be better.  Enjoy!

The gap didn't look good to me when I was making mine that is why I glued them in place. It makes them look like they are part of the track. It is extra work and time that others may not find necessary. I am a little more uptight about some things than others I suppose. Yours look good and I would imagine from normal viewing distances the gap isn't really noticeable, especially with the ballast being done.

@Mannyrock posted:

Those look really great Mike,

I have been thinking about plunging into this myself, because my track work on the layout is totally finished.

But, with around 75 feet of track, and around 8 rails per foot, I would be looking at 600 cross ties!   I just don't see how people do this.  I guess I could do about a foot a day, but that would take almost 3 months.  :-O

Mannyrock

Thanks,

I used my small miter saw to cut several at a time. It makes the process much quicker. Care must be taken when holding items that close to the blade. I found that out the hard way several years after I made my ties. My layout is about 8X8 twice around, so not too much shorter than yours and it really didn't take long at all to get them done. I think I cut about 10 at a time. So a hundred can be cut in a few minutes. If you use a handheld saw and do it the old fashioned way you will probably need that three months.

If you want more solid wood, go to Home Depot or Lowes and look at their square wood dowels and small wooden trim. Buy some pieces, line them up in a chop saw, and cut... cut... cut. I like using Minwax "Jacobean" stain for ties as it looks like oily, wet creosote when it dries.

I used 3/16 x 5/16 x 24" strip basswood. It fits snugly under the track.

If you call Gargrave's .. the ones that make flexible track etc

they will sale you a box of loose ones already painted or stained..

If you have a table saw and miter saw, they aren't hard to make. I'm not home, so I can't measure them, but I cut wood scraps from other projects into strips with the table saw, then cut to length on the miter saw.  Spray painted black.

I think I've posted pictures of the strips and ties in the past, but can't seem to find them now.

Found the post with dimensions:

https://ogrforum.com/...3#155152949769038213

3R Plastics sells their rubber ones for about about a quarter a piece on Amazon. They have black and brown in bags of 250.

https://www.amazon.com/Realist...Caps%2C96&sr=8-3