... and the spike holes were drilled and the spikes inserted. Here's a turnout partially constructed. 25_101859_200000000.jpg There's also a difference to UK practice since I'm using self-guarding "frogs", so no check rails. However, I did have to lay my diamond crossing and a tandem turnout with standard crossings and check rails and I used a mix of the plastic railplates as above and also nickel silver plates spiked to the timbers to solder the crossing assemblies to. There were short nickel silver plates between stock rails and check rails. 25_101903_160000000.jpg I found the best tools to put the spikes in were two sets of snipe nosed pliers. The larger set has serated jaws which proved handy when spikes were a bit obstinate, but the other, smaller set was the weapon of choice since the ends of the jaws were machined square and were excellent for pushing the spikes fully home. I did have thoughts about making a spiking tool but always opted to persist with the pliers. Also I made a mistake on the size of spike. The ones I used swere the ...