I recently discovered that Google is making books that are in the public domain available online. This may not be "new" but its new to me. I recently got hits on two when I was searching for info on prototype bridge tie size and spacing:

Notes On Track

Maintenance of Way and Structures

These two were kind of interesting too:

Elements of Railroad Engineering

Railroad Freight Transportation

They are both older books but for my New England area railroads, mostly built around the turn of the century, they seem very applicable. Plus, the cost is right! The down side is that the PDFs are image scans so do not seem to be searchable or have bookmarks. I can search using the Google page where the book was located.

The thing I really like is that now truly useful reference material is popping up during web searches. It may be dated, but for some kinds of research its really great to find some legitimate sources.

The answer I got seemed to be around 8"x8" with 12"-16" tie spacing and 9 or 10 feet long. That works out to 0.05" square in N. I am going to go see if I can get some strip wood that size at the local craft shop. I do have N ties, but they are not long enough. I don't think they are tall enough either.

I know Micro Engineering makes bridge track, but I wanted to try my hand at putting my own together. It seems like it should be easy enough to do given the short length of the span.

Chris