I get quite a few e-mails asking me how I spike my rail. When I bought the Tomalco Track tie plates, Larry recommended that I purchase the Micro Engineering "micro" spikes, because that was what the tie plates were designed to use. So, I started off spiking with the Micro Engineering spikes, as I suspect most people who hand-lay track have done. However, I soon discovered that they are hard to drive into the ties (their footprint is actually rectangular), their quality control varies from package to package, and the spikes are magnetic, which means that if you mean to pick one up with your spiking pliers, you're bound to grab three!
Spike Alternatives
I have bought and used two packages of the Micro Engineering spikes, and that will probably be all that I'll ever buy. Thanks to Stephen Hatch of
Railway Engineering, I learned that it is just as simple to make your own spikes.
They are under your control, you don't run out, they go into the ties like butter, and they hardly ever bend. They are non-magnetic and they stay put in
the wooden ties just like the Micro Engineering ones. I use 0.015" or 0.016" brass wire. I have used all of the following (see product photos below) with
equal success:
- K&S Engineering 0.016" brass wire part #5087 ($3 for 3 feet of wire)
- Detail Associates 0.015" brass wire part #2505 ($3 for 8 feet of wire)
- Tichy Train Group 0.015" phosphor bronze wire part #1102 ($2.50 for 8 feet of wire) - personal favorite
My experience was that 0.019" brass wire is too big for the Tomalco Track tie plates and a bit harder to bend. Music, steel, or piano wire, even at 0.015" diameter is too hard. It won't bend at all.
Making the Spikes
To make the spikes, I use two tools, namely a thin flat file and a small pair of rail nippers. I have also used a small metal ruler. The face of the file/ruler
is perfect for the length of spikes I want, so I line up the brass wire to one edge of the file's face, and make a 90-degree bend around the other edge. I put
the file down and cut the spike just away from the bend using the nippers. The distance from the bend determines the length of the spike head, so you can make
them as long or as short as you would like. It takes a bit of practice, but I found that very quickly I could cut these without thinking about it and it became
kind of like assembly-line work.
When you cut the spike off the brass wire, be careful, because they tend to fly away. Here's a very close-up photo of a couple of spikes. I push the spikes in just like I did the Micro Engineering ones, and then touch the spike heads with some Floquil "Rail Brown" paint to blend them in with the rail.
