Tie Plates for Dummy Framers

Tie plates on truss

We love learning new things here at the Antisocial Network, though not necessarily at the expense of "old" things (which one might define as "things we already knew"). That's why we were of mixed feelings about today's DotD nominee: s/he introduced us to something new, or more accurately, reminded us of some fairly useless trivia. The problem? WiseGEEK.com freelancer B. Turner went for the uncommon instead of the common when trying to explain "What Are Tie Plates?"

Turner must have gone straight to Google images to find out that a tie plate is, as s/he put it,

"...a thick steel panel that sits between the rails and ties, or sleepers, on a standard railroad track."

We won't argue with that. What we will argue with is that, unless the OQ was reading something about a derailed train, it's much more likely that the question was instead about what is also known as a truss connector plate. Framing carpenters call these babies "tie plates" because, well duh, they're used to tie together framing elements (see image above).
Turner, however, went into pretty much excruciating detail about the size, shape, and use of railroad tie plates – 402 words' worth of detail, including such critical information as

"Tracks constructed without wooden ties generally don't require tie plates..."

...which is immediately adjacent to a photograph of tie plates used on concrete ties. Again, "Duh."

Our point here is not that Turner's information is wrong – like most WiseGEEK articles we've read, it's a skillful rewording of something fairly accurate. Our point is that any moron can look up "tie plate" and find all manner of stuff about railroads. It takes some thought to find out that the same term is slang for a "toothy" steel plate used in combination with fasteners such as nails, screws, or bolts to add rigidity to wooden framing. Turner didn't even mention that meaning, which is all we needed to name B. our Dumbass of the Day.

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