Follow this tutorial to assemble Berkshire Design HO scale tie strips.
The tie plates are designed to work with any NMRA standard code 70 rail. They will also work with Micro Engineering code 83 rail because the base of their code 83 rail is very close to the width of NMRA code 70 rail. NMRA standard code 55 rail will fit, but extra care will need to be taken to keep the rail in gage.
The sprue is designed to act as a jig for building tie strips. The tie plates should not be separated from the sprue until after the ties are glued to the tie plates.
The sprue is designed to work with 8 foot, 6 inch HO scale ties and properly center those ties like the Kappler brand ties sold here. To use 8 foot ties, either visually center the ties or use a 0.030 inch thick shim on each side. To use 9 foot ties, the sprues that guide the ends of the ties will need to be removed and the ties visually centered. Note some HO scale tie manufacturers do not list the scale length. For example, Northeastern Scale Lumber’s HO scale ties to not state the scale length. Measurement of their ties shows they are a scale 9 foot tie.
