The splined trestle deck is now complete with ties and before assembling this to the trestle bents it is time to spike the rail on to the ties. The RGS typically used rail length of 30 feet. I used weathered Micro Engineering code 70 rail cut to scale 30ft lengths and individual spikes.
The first challenge is to align the rail lengths into position ready for spiking. I used an aluminium straight edge clamped to the ties to align the rail.
To avoid splitting the ties and to allow the spikes to be driven into the tie and splined stringer below I pre-drilled the spike locations using a pin vise to drill a 0.8mm hole through the tie and into the splined stringer. Then using needle nose pliers to drive the spike into the tie and holding the base of the rail firmly seated to the tie.
Spikes are driven into the pre-drilled holes and have just about enough grip to firmly seat the base of the rail to the ties. Note that the spikes are placed every 6th tie. Pins show the location of the spikes in the photo. Sorry its not that sharp.
