John,
Older S heads than I could wade in here but here is my take:
The old original Miller strip, (not the stuff that Don Heimburger
later did), was a great product. The only drawback was, as you pointed
out, is the size of the spike heads and the lack of detail on the
ties. It is very easy to thread the rail into the strip, (and take it
out if necessary), and you can make a lot of track in a hurry. It was
made for code 125 rail which made the later NASG standards gauge a
little tight. It works out almost dead on for code 100. Danny and I
have used it extensively for quickly laying out trackwork, especially
temporary trackwork. It is easy to curve, putting a few spikes along
the webs, and reuse if you have to move. Danny and I have reused some
of ours several times. His is using quite a bit of it on his new layout.
Two properties worth noting are 1) it seems that trains are basically
floating on a cushion of air and operation is very smooth and 2)
trains run very quietly even when laid directly onto plywood. I
suspect that it is the fact that the ties are hollow underneath, and/
or the type of plastic used. I once saw a movie that was filmed on a
flat car,(before camcorders), pushed ahead of a locomotive on the late
Dick Arther's(sp) layout in Canada. There was absolutely no jiggling
in this homemade film, a testament to the tie strip, (and to his
craftsmanship no doubt).
I would welcome such a product. Of course pricing would be a factor.
Would this be similar to Central Valley's offering in HO?
Also worth mentioning was that ACE made individual plastic ties that
could be used to build track sections, the advantage would be that you
could space the ties as you wish. I never bought any because they were
only made for larger rail. I have thought that a scale sized
individual tie may have a market as well. To me a disadvantage of
scale sized spike heads is their delicacy possibly making it harder to
bend without breaking and to reuse the track later.
Billy
On Oct 21, 2008, at 8:48 PM, John Degnan wrote:
> Speaking of Tie Strips...
>
> I finally got a small piece of this Miller Tie Strip and have had
> time to
> review it. Having been in S for only a few years, I had never seen any
> before. My thoughts... not bad at all for something of that age! Not
> great by any means, but not bad. I took the code 100 rail from a
> piece of
> Atlas HO snap-track and slid them into the strip and the gauge came
> out
> almost right, but just a little on the tight side. That, and the
> fact that
> the "spikes" are GODZILLA sized are the only real problems I could
> find
> with it... oh, and the lack of detail on the ties. The perfect
> spacing and
> arrangement of the ties could be an issue for some, but that can be
> overcome by using the strip primarily on well-maintained mainlines.
>
> Now, I have a question... would such a product do well today? If
> someone
> were to offer tie strip today... a tie strip that is far superior to
> the
> Miller strip, would there be a market for it?
>
> John Degnan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The Unites States is NOT a country whose citizens have a right to
> RECEIVE,
> It is a country whose citizens have a right to ACHIEVE.
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Robert Nicholson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:35 PM
> > Subject: {S-Scale List} Miller Tie Strip
> >
> > Does anyone have any of the old Robert L. Miller tie strip they'd
> > like to divest themselves of, or even the "S"cenery Unlimited
> > reproduction stuff?
> >
> > Let me know what you want for it, and I'll decide if I can afford
> > it.
> > Bob Nicholson
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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