wooden ties

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm back to bother all of you with another question. I've been handlaying track in HO for so long that it's become a habit, so I thought I'd do the same in the larger scale in the garden. My question is....what kind of wood works best for ties outside? I was thinking maybe fir or cedar, or maybe white pine because it is a softer wood and easier to work with?
Thanks RR

[vsmith]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!! DANGER!!!!!

DONT USE PINE !!!!!!! DO NOT USE FIR !!!!!

Unless you want to redo all your hard work in less than a year ![;)]

Pine will rot in the soil real fast, Heart Redwood is best with Cedar second. Both of these woods have natural rot resistance and in well drained graded roadbed will last a long time.

[Anonymous]

[#ditto]!!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks..advice noted. Diffinitely don't want to have to redo work in a year! LOL
RR

[whiterab]

And don't forget to use an exterior wood sealer on the cedar or the redwood.......

[grandpopswalt]

Another forum member has been using TREX for many years with great results.

Walt

[cacole]

I use water-based Varathane Spar Urethane on my bridges and trestleworks that are made out of cedar and redwood. This product dries in 20 minutes, and because it is water-based, brushes can be washed and reused. I use Kilz2 as a primer and sealer on items that are going to be painted.

[Anonymous]

Hey Walt, I'm assuming your talking about Old Dad/Larry, he uses Trex for spline roadbed and not for the actual ties if I remember correctly. trex would be a little to hard to put a spike into unless you heated with a torch and melted it into the trex.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

A member of our club here in DE used cedar, he soaked ties in preservative after cutting them, handlaid the track, & 2 years later had to redo 75% due to termites!!!! All round, I'll stick with Aristo!

[bman36]

Hey guys,
I just plain don't have time. For me...thank God they make sectional track! Hats off to those who handlay! I consider it an artform. Later eh...Brian.

[grandpopswalt]

Matt,

I'm pretty sure Larry uses TREX for the ties as well. I've ripped up some TREX and made ties to experiment with. I had no trouble getting spikes to penetrate.

Walt

[Anonymous]

Walt, well if you can get the spikes in then you'll definatly be better off than the wood tie crowd with the effects of termites and water.

[bman36]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grandpopswalt

Matt,

I'm pretty sure Larry uses TREX for the ties as well. I've ripped up some TREX and made ties to experiment with. I had no trouble getting spikes to penetrate.

Walt

Walt,
Too bad Larry no longer posts here.[:(] We need to email him and encourage him to post again. His input here would have been great. [tup]

[Anonymous]

[#ditto] Bman

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why anyone would want to do this, I don't, so i don't think anyone else should either.

Regards ian

[grandpopswalt]

Matt and Brian,

Looks like we're both right (and wrong). I've exchanged e-mail with Larry (OLD DAD). Here's the skinny on the use of TREX. He's used it for ties (sleepers) and found that it was no more difficult to spike than redwood. However, he didn't like the pebbled grain of the product and went back to using redwood for aesthetic reasons.

Walt

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information Walt.