N scale tie strip jig

If you want to hand lay track in N scale, a tie strip jig is an invaluable tool.

What is a tie jig?

A tie jig basically is a series of slots slightly wider than a tie. The slots have a common end allowing ties to be placed in the slots and aligned against the stop. I built my first tie jig on a nice piece of 2x1 using contact cement to glue down styrene strips.

What should the base material be?

I thought it would be important to have a flat base that did not flex. It turns out that this is not so important. It is much more important to have the correct spacing so the ties go in and come out easily.

I must have been out of my mind using styrene on a wood base and using this method of gluing! I only got about 30 strips down. Not much of a jig!

How long does the jig need to be?

Twelve inches is plenty for someone who is getting going with hand laying.

What are the dimensions of the tie spacers?

My second jig is much better. The base is a piece of 0.060” thick styrene sheet with a 3/8” wide 0.030” thick styrene strip as a tie stop,

Mainline ties are basically 7”x 9” and spaced on 20” centers. That leaves about 11” between the ties sides. 11”/160 = 0.06875” so I used 0.060” wide strip and added a few thou (the thickness of a piece of paper) to give the ties a little room to move. This is important when removing the ties.

You want the resulting troughs for the ties to be shallow. The spacers on the jig must be lower than the thickness of the ties you’ll be using, otherwise when you put the tape on, it won’t reach the tops of the ties! You also want the ties to leave the jig easily when the strip is removed. So 7”/160 = 0.04375”. I used 0.030” which in retrospect is maybe still too high. When I make the jig for secondary track, I think I’ll use .020” high strip. You don’t need much height. Lower than 0.020” and the ties will bump out of the troughs too readily when making strips.

How do you position the styrene tie spacers?

Make sure you find the thickest tie to use as a spacer. If you grab a thin one you’ll make a jig that most ties won’t want to leave! First measure a few dozen ties from multiple lots with a micrometer to find how wide the ties are. (If you don’t have a micrometer, you can do a pretty reasonable  job with your finger. Set ties on their long edge and feel with your finger which one is higher.) Ties are mostly pretty uniform in width but they do vary by 5-10 thousandths. Each time you find a wider tie, set it aside and keep looking till you’ve measured enough.

Use the last tie you set aside (i.e. the widest one) as a construction tool to determine where to glue the styrene tie spacer strips to the styrene base. Mark this magic tie with a dot from a permanent marker.

Place the magic tie next to the previous styrene spacer. Put the new styrene spacer next to the tie. Then use a small square to make sure the new spacer is at right angles to the tie stop. Jog the new spacer away from the tie. There should be a fine gap no thicker than a pencil line between the magic tie and the styrene spacers on either side of it. This play is crucial to ensure the ties come out from the slots easily.

How do you glue the tie spacer in place?

MEK makes quick work of the gluing. The punch line for using styrene is you can glue the strips really easily using MEK and they bond fast. The repeated positioning and gluing is a bit monotonous but you only have to do this once to make the jig and it doesn’t take all that long. Hold the new tie spacer in place with your finger, carefully slide the magic tie out of the slot and glue the new spacer in place with the MEK. Only use what you need, don’t make a big puddle in the tie trough.

If you liked making the jig, you’ll probably enjoy hand laying

The whole jig took about 2 hours to put together. If you think you’re serious about hand laying, start by making your tie jig. It’s a good test. If you have fun doing it, keep going. If you don’t like this part, save yourself some money and frustration because hand laying in N is probably not for you!