Plastic lumber?

[Anonymous]

I read of many people mounting their track on lumber for a base. My question is, has anyone used plastic lumber for this? Warping, rotting, termites, and all that stuff should not be a problem with it.

[grandpopswalt]

Capt Turk,

Look in the sticky topic at the head of the forum "Research links to useful sites". You'll find a section by a former forum member, OLD DAD, who talks about using TREX (plastic wood) as a roadbed material.

I've seen his layout in Minnesota and can tell you that it has weathered that terrible climate with no problems for many years.

Walt

[Anonymous]

I have always been against using timber (lumber) sleeoers (ties) for a different reason to everyone else and i believe you will spend years regretting using wood and never know or understand where your ongoing problems come from.

My problem is to do with electrolysis, if the wood has even the smallest amount of moisture in it you will get a very small discharge through the the sleeper between your rails almosy unmeasurable up the being bearly measurable. This will initiate an electrolyic activity that will do nothing in the short term but plenty long term whenever the system is powered up.

What this will be I don't know but i'm sure it will be unpleasant and very hard to understand or to isolate.

It willbe worse if you reticulate your power using DC and even worse if you live anywher near the ocean as do I.


Rgds Ian

PS If it was me i wouldn't do it.

[Anonymous]

Ian,
Being a 40 year boat captain, I'm very familiar with electrolysis. It can destroy even massive pieces of metal. I.e. whole ship hulls and propellors.
My question was not about using using wood for ties. I'm using sectional LGB track with the plastic ties. My question was about using "plastic" lumber for the sub bed to hold the track level and straight. Screw or nail the sectional track to an aprox. 2" wide plastic board which will be buried in the ballast.
My main concern is the expansion coefficent of the plastic lumber. It should be much less than than actual wood. I'm just wondering how close it would be to the expansion coefficent of the brass track. I live in Northern Florida where temps can get fairly high.
The area where I am at has a bit of a problem with termites. Any wood left laying on the ground here will be infested with termites in a matter of days.