Gargraves Wood or Plastic Ties? "Survey says"

@Carl Peduzzi posted:

I honestly didn’t know Gargraves made plastic ties.  

1. My biggest issue with Gargraves (and Ross) is the wood ties are not scale looking.  

2. Are the plastic ties closer to scale?  

Now please understand that I don’t want to divert the discussion here to what looks better.  I am just looking for clarity on the Gargraves plastic for my own information, and to get a better idea of what people are comparing to the Gargraves wood ties.

1. Well...that and the code 215(?) rail!   

2. No; I think they are pretty much the same size...the plastic is, of course, more shiny.

Mark in Oregon

PS: Please don't misunderstand the above comments; I think GarGraves is great stuff... 

Greetings,

After using both Gargraves, Wood "S"  and plastic "O" as well as Ross switches,

I pick plastic.

The wood on the Gargraves S can be brittle in my experance, I used sectional as well as flex. Plastic seems more sturdy.

I use the Gargraves sectional in O also. They look fine with the Ross switches.

Starting over, Ross all the way, sectional and switches.

Ray

Regarding the creation of a high-resistance path in the wood by staining the ties: the wood ties already have high resistance, which is what you want, so even if stain added a tiny bit of resistance to the tie (or to thousands of them) so much the better. What you don't want is reduced resistance, because the ties are also electrical insulators in addition to their role as physical supports for the rails.

@Carl Peduzzi posted:

I honestly didn’t know Gargraves made plastic ties.  My biggest issue with Gargraves (and Ross) is the wood ties are not scale looking.  Are the plastic ties closer to scale?  

Now please understand that I don’t want to divert the discussion here to what looks better.  I am just looking for clarity on the Gargraves plastic for my own information, and to get a better idea of what people are comparing to the Gargraves wood ties.

Since I started this topic, I want to answer your question directly, after obtaining more information.

As strummer stated GG brown wood and black plastic ties are the same size.  I am attaching a photo.  Note that the last tie on the wood section, and the last tie on the plastic section have been "Swapped".  This was as simple as sliding the ties off and then sliding back on.  The photo shows the appearance difference.

Since I started this thread, I will mention the overall appearance.  I started a seperate thread on that topic, here is the link;

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-there-be-any-takers

The attached picture shows old Lionel Super O (left) verses GG, look closely to see difference between GG Plastic and Wood ties.

Hope this helps others looking at this thread, who had my original question.

@MainLine Steam posted:

Funny, I have wondered why Ross doesn't use Brown ties?  Real Railroad wood ties are brown.

Atlas 3R Track originally had Black Plastic ties and they changed to Brown.

Where I live new railroad ties are black because of the creosote.  It is only after several years that they begin to brown as the creosote is leached out.  I think color is purely a matter of preference.

Wood.  Ross and Gargraves.

While I said I prefer wood, I do have some track with plastic ties around.  And when it fitted the occasion, I have used it.  As I plan to ballast all the track, it doesn't really matter all that much.

George

I have gg with plastic ties its fine and looks good  but if I were to do again I think I would go with wood ties its more readily available. I used gg switches also but had to tweak everyone of them because of derailments.