Canadian Track for the Turn of the Century

Around 1899, the Canada Atlantic Railway upgraded its track to 76 pound rail laid on "almost" 3000 ties per mile from 50 pound laid on 2200 ties per mile [Bell, 1994]. Local accounts indicate that the ties were either untreated or treated with a light-coloured compound such as zinc. There were no tie plates, which is not unusual for the era [American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Assocition. Volume 9, ARE&MOWA, Chicago, 1908.].

Examination of photographs indicates that the rails were approximately 30 ft long, joined by four-bolt joint bars with the bolt heads all to the inside of the rail. An interesting feature of several Canadian railroads, and the Canada Atlantic in particular, is that the track crews went to some effort to ensure the joints in the rails were opposite one another; early in this century, staggered joints became the norm.

Ballast on the Canada Atlantic was nominally gravel. The AREA suggested that gravel should be large enough to be retained upon a number 10 screen (presumably 10 wires per inch) [ARE&MOWA. Proc. Tenth Ann. Conv. of the Am. Ry. Eng'g and Mtc of Way Assoc. Vol 10. ARE&MOWA, Chicago, 1909, p677-720]. However, photographs reveal that the ballast of the Canada Atlantic and its gravel pit consisted of a lot of sand.

The Model

The latter problem is easily solved by handlaying rail on wooden ties. However, that solution results either in spikes that are far too large, or spikes that are missing altogether. This article explores one method of detailing handlaid track.

Ties

Quite a few of the Canada Atlantic's ties were flat only on two sides, and these are poorly represented by the Railcraft ties. Perhaps one of the other arch-bar era modellers in the group will come up with a reasonable way to represent those ties so we can model the situations where the ties have not sunk into the ballast so much.

Ballast

To obtain the very fine appearance of the Canada Atlantic's gravel ballast, I screened some local dirt through a typical sized screen, but found that it still looked too coarse. So I screened it again through a stainless steel etched screen (Tripart Modelling Mesh 104) that I purchased from the hobby shop. This had 0.3 mm round holes and the resulting dust makes somewhat believable sand.

Joint Bars.

Normally, I apply NBWs by cutting them from the sprue just below the washer and dropping them in a drop of solvent at their final location. This operation is fine for a few bolts, but even on two feet of track, I needed to manoeuvre over sixty of these little tiddly-winks into position. After one joint bar was finished, I decided to find a better way.

In the end, I drilled four holes on six scale inch centres in a section of .010" x .100" plastic. The tails of the NBWs were inserted in these holes and drops of solvent were applied from behind. Once everything had set completely, the excess NBW tails were cut away with flush cutters, and the joint bars were trimmed to their final dimensions (2 scale feet by .030 inches) with a razor blade.

The inside halves of the joint bars were made up with plain pieces of .010" x .030" styrene. However, in retrospect, I wish they had the bolt head detail, which would not have been so hard to create.

The joint bars were glued to the rails at this point, and the assemblies were taped to a piece of cardboard and sprayed a rusty grimy browny grey colour. Anyone who has ever had to paint rail once it has been stuck to the ties will not need to ask about my reasons for painting the rail before laying it down. The cardboard nicely masked the underside of the rail so I would have a clean surface on which to spread the glue.

Laying the Rail

1) Bend the rail so that it lies in place without spikes.

2) Spread as much glue as possible onto the underside of the rail.

3) Wait until the Pliobond dries.

4) Position the rail, holding it in place with gauges if necessary.

5) Heat up the rail with a soldering iron, just enough to melt -- but not enough to burn -- the glue.

The last step is the important one. People who have no success with Pliobonding rail have probably burnt the glue. With my 25 Watt soldering iron, it took no time at all to melt the glue into the ties, creating a firm bond. Indeed, I found it necessary to keep the soldering iron moving constantly.

Spikes

Spikes in period photographs, however, appear even smaller than those of today. In an effort to reproduce these tiny details, I devised the following method:

1) With a pin, poke a hole for the spike.

2) Push the end of a .010" (0.25 mm) rod into the hole.

3) Using a piece of plastic strip to gauge the height, cut the rod off .030" (0.75 mm) above the surface of the tie. For smaller spikes cut it lower; for larger ones, cut higher.

4) Using a slip of paper to shield the rail and the spike from the heat, bend the spike in toward the rail with a soldering iron.

5) Paint the spike head.

7) Spray the spike with dilute white glue to keep it in place.

Even with excellent light, this marvelously involved method seems to take about an hour or so for each foot of track. It is certainly not a worthwhile approach for background track! However, the resulting spikes are small and surprisingly uniform. Almost all of them came out as elongated discs, slightly overlapping the foot of the rail, and approximately 0.02" by 0.18" (0.5 x 0.46 mm) or 1.75" by 1.6" (44 x 40 mm) full size. They compare favourably in size to the spikes Railcraft code 55 flex track which are .03" by 1.8" (0.75 x 0.46 mm).

Conclusion