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.
We highly recommend Crafter’s Pick The Ultimate Glue to fix the ties to the tie plates. This glue can be found at Hobby Lobby and other retailers. The tie plates are made from polystyrene, so any glue that will bond wood to polystyrene will work. However, cyanoacrylates tend to be brittle and more likely to fail when removing the plates from the sprue.
Using a toothpick or other similar sized applicator, apply a small dot of glue to the underside of each tie plate. Then place the tie in the jig. For fast drying glues, you may only apply glue to a few tie plates at a time. Leave one tie plate at one end of the strip without a tie attached. That tie plate will be glued to the next tie strip. Make sure to let the glue fully dry per glue manufacturer’s instruction.
Care should be taken when removing the tie plates from the sprue. This is the most delicate part of the assembly process. As previously mentioned, wait for the glue to fully dry.
Do not use sprue cutters. When cutting with sprue cutters, the cutting operation puts a significant side load that will break the glue joint.
Use a sharp hobby knife with downward pressure to trim the tie plates from the sprue. When using standard profile ties, cut directly on a cutting mat. When using low profile ties, place something like a small block of wood under the ties to support the underside of the ties when cutting the sprue.
At this point in the process, you have a flexible tie plate strip ready to be added to your model railroad.
