It's hard to imagine working in Proto:87 without some accurate gauges.  Until recently, my kit consisted of a couple of roller and three-point gauges from Gibson and Huet and various others cobbled together or built on a friend's lathe.  Between them, they enabled me to assemble track and rolling stock that worked well together. 
Yet, it was inconvenient.  The track gauges are invariably made for a wider rail head than I use, resulting in a gauge that wanders more than it should .  My only flangeway gauge was a spark plug feeler gauge, and there was none that matched the required 0.57 mm exactly.  For back-to-back measurement, the gauges simply fit between the wheels, and I was never sure if the wheels were too far apart or not.  The result was that I almost always double-checked every measurement with my callipers.
That's fine for a small layout like Pembroke, but not so good for a larger home layout like Ed McCamey's COSLAR.  Ed felt enough pain from checking and rechecking his track that he eventually decided to have some NMRA-style gauges made and to share them with the rest of us.
The fruit of his labours is shown in Photo 1.  The gauge is cut using an EDM wire from 50 AWG stainless steel.  The accuracy is meant to be +/- .0001".  Certainly, my specimens are much more accurate than my trusty old callipers.
The gauges measure the following dimensions: maximum and minimum gauge, maximum check gauge and flangeway.  It also ensures that wheels are positioned within the specified range for back-to-back, and that their tyres are neither too wide nor too narrow.
Because Ed's layout includes an HOn3 branch, the gauge works for three foot gauge as well.  I suppose you could file off the superfluous protrusions if you were gauge-intolerant.  However, they do not get in the way, except when checking the track gauge through the lead of a turnout.
The gauges are available through the Proto:87 Stores for $13 USD each.  You need at least one.

During the UK 4mm/ft finescale convention, Scalefour North, there was news  of what could be another step up the ladder of P87 progress.  In 1999 I sent a Micro Engineering turnout to Bill Bedford (a well known UK based producer of etchings and various bits and pieces for finescale modellers) to look at the viability of making a 'drop-in' replacement frog to P87 standards.  I couldn't comment on the timescale involved but if I remember correctly the phrase 'don't hold your breath' cropped up somewhere in the message.
Anyway, here we are nearly two years down the road and Bill is on the point of coming up with the goods.  But he needs to know if it's going to be worth his while to proceed.  The state of play at the moment is he has made a master suitable to go into production and it looks like the cost, should production go ahead, will be around $10 (USD) or UK equivalent.
So what we need is a rough idea of how many folks would be interested in purchasing the frog unit and, if possible, how many units they might require.  Thus it would be a great help if those interested could mail me with some sort of statement of commitment, and I'll pass on the results to Bill.
Please reply to:
Email: johnhwright@xclent.clara.co.uk