Fish plates - Model Railroader Magazine

Barry,

The guys have given you a lot of good information, at the risk of covering some ground again, here are  some things I can contribute.

Generally speaking rail is 39' long. The next lower standard length is 33', which is what you get when you crop the ends of a 39' rail. When improperly maintained, or from age, the rail ends get bent down and the only way to fix that is crop it. Of course, this adds more joints, which means more maintenance. It's a vicious cycle. There is a machine out there called a rail straightener which sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, after being straightened with one of these machines (And even while straightening), a fairly large percentage break.

After the 33' length you get the "shorts", which are anything needed to fill a gap.

FB or Flat Bottom rail must be a UK term, it's not a term used in the US.

Rail is designated by the weight per yard, 90, 100, 130, etc. There are also letters in that rail designation, PRR, PS, LV, RE, ASCE, etc. Many of these are the railroad that came up with this rail section, PRR, LV and RDG are pretty self-explanatory. PS is Pennsylvania Standard, I can't remember what RE means, but there are enough rail sections out there to give you a headache. Plus, they have many different spacings for the drillings on the ends, so the bars and rails have to match.

There are also numerous types and sizes of tie plates, rail anchors, and even track bolts (Nuts and washers too) that match the various rail sections. And that's not even getting into the plates and other jewelry that goes with welded rail on wood or concrete ties.

The only joint bars with inside/outside that I'm familiar with are Compromise (Comp) Joint bars. These are exactly what they sound like, they compromise the joints between different rail sections. They come in left and right hand versions due to the head of the rail being a different width and the need to keep the gage the same on the "gage" side. Railroads don't care about the "field" side (The outside that faces the field.

Insulated joints are pretty standard design with few variations, except for the material they are made of (Plastic, fibreglass, etc). They are used just like we use them on the model to insulate blocks for signalling, and also for the circuits at grade crossings. There is a type referred to as a "Glued Block Joint" that comes from the factory already assembled and epoxied into a length of rail. This joint is then either welded in place or holes are drilled to be bolted in place (They can be ordered pre-drilled too).

Even on welded rail you'll hear the click-clack of the wheels passing any block joint, it won't be as loud as on jointed rail, but you'll hear it.

Some manufacturer in the Walthers catalog lists bars, braces for turnouts and details for points that you can use. I can't remember who it is.

For the weathering, you have some options. When laid new, the rail, spikes, bars, nuts, bolts, washers and plates are generally the same color, shades of gray with rust. But it all weathers quickly to an almost uniform color.

Joints are always staggered on the railroad, unless an absolute necessity to do otherwise. Or the Roadmaster isn't too bright. The constant pounding of the wheels on the joints really beats up the rails, ties and roadbed, which causes it to sink. This increases maintenance and is hard on the track structure. That's why they are staggered.

Something else not modelled, but a big part of the track structure is rail anchors. These clamp on the base of the rail and grab the edge of the tie to prevent the rail from moving.

These are necessary because the rail moves, or "runs" due to expansion/contraction and the traffic moving over it. Anchors help stop this. When you don't have anchors, the rail will move, which moves the joints, which catch on the plates and spikes, which then drags the ties through the ballast. In extreme cases, the ties will move enough out of line (Diagonally, since the rail is only pulling one side at this joint - remember those staggered joints) and will pull the gage in.

And remember when ballasting to extend that ballast shoulder out from the end of the tie about 12"-18" before tapering the shoulder down. This keeps the track from displacing laterally from expansion and other forces.

Tie spacing varies between mainline, sidings, yards, and even industrial sidings. So do tie sizes, not length, but height and width (6"x9", 5"x8", etc.). There are also different grades of ties (Grade 5, IG, etc.) and end (Also known as "S") irons and end plates on ties.

The turning of rail from inside to outside is generally used in curves, but also in tangent track at times. The practice is referred to as "transposing" rail. Since the gage side is what wears under traffic, this transposing gives you a good surface again. It is a practice in use today on many roads.

Pulling used rail from a main and putting it in secondary or branch lines, sidings or yards is called "cascading" rail and is also still used today.

Like I said, some of this was covered, but not all.

Sorry for running on here, hope it helps.

We've kicked around using some of those bars and braces in some foreground places on the layout as an experiment to see how they look in photos, but haven't gettne there yet. If you try this, I would love to see pictures of your results.