20. That’s how many tie plates are on a sprue. That’s enough for 10 ties.
It doesn’t appear to be much. Certainly not when I consider I have several hundred ties to dress with the plates, spikes, and (of course) rail.
But installing just 20 ties plates on my Proto:48 Southern Pacific layout requires trimming and cleaning up 20 plastic castings. It requires 40 spikes – which must each have their heads trimmed with a pair of side cutters. It requires drilling 40 pilot holes, so I don’t split my ties. And so on.
This not a complaint. It’s reality.
It’s been more than a month since I last posted about working on the SP. August was taken up with work and other things, and – frankly – I wasn’t in the mood to engage with the hobby.
On the one hand, that’s okay: It’s a hobby, not work, and I shouldn’t feel forced to do it.
On the other hand, that’s not okay: It’s too easy to stall on projects and never get anything accomplished.
So on the weekend I made a promise to myself. Unless I’m travelling, I will install a minimum of one fret of tie plates per day. That takes about 30 minutes right now, but as I build a routine I expect this to drop to 20.
And of course if I have time and inclination, I can install more. In fact, I’ve done a fair bit more than 20 per day so far this week.
Until today. When I started spiking my back said, “Yeah… no”. Regardless, I did my 20 – and now I’m going to do something else. Something that doesn’t require standing – and perhaps includes a pot of tea.
But I’m glad I had set a goal of 20 tie plates per day, or I would not have made any progress. Instead, I can look at the last couple of feet of the team track and call the spiking here done and ready for ballast.
There are still a lot of tie plates to go. But laying track for a Proto:48 layout is like how one eats an elephant: One bite at a time.
Tomorrow? 20 tie plates. And then we’ll see…
The Model Railway Show 