NUMBER OF TIES

[The Block House]

A GOOD FRIND OF MINE ASKED IF I KNEW HOW MANY RAIL TIES ARE IN A MILE. ARE WOOD A ND CONCRETE TIES LAID WITH THE SAME SPACEING OR ARE THEY DILLERANT.

[rrnut282]

It depends: on track use(main,yard, siding), weight of the rail, material and the thickness of the tie.

[UPTRAIN]

I thought it was like 6,000 on main lines per mile.....I forget though.

[jeaton]

No, I think they are like 20 inches on center, or something like that. Its night time, can somebody sneak out with a yard stick and do a quick measure. Honestly, I have been around train tracks a lot.

I should get off and do some real work, but I'll try a Google search for fun.

[jeaton]

Ah, Found it -good ole Google.
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1996/oct/4.html

Sleepers Through Time

by Lynn Barnickol

illustrated by Dr. James E. Price
"The Missouri Department of Transportation reports that in 1991 about 7,052 miles of track were in service in Missouri. About two-thirds was in mainline quality track and the other third was in sidings, spur lines and rail yards. Main line track requires about 3,700 ties per mile and a better grade of tie to withstand the rapid movement of heavy trains. The lower maintenance tracks required about 2,900 ties per mile, including ties of a lower grade."

Just to be clear they are talking about wood ties.

[Anonymous]

Here's how its done in Alaska:
Each mile of track requires 3,250 ties and 19,000 spikes.
There are 611 miles of track owned by ARR.
That's 1,985,750 ties and 11,609,000 spikes total.

[Anonymous]

Its my understanding that there's a 2nd tier of consideration here. I think that the FRA looks at, not just how many total ties are in a mile, but in terms of condition, classification and track speed, they count on how many "nail-able" ties there are in a mile (i.e. how many are in good enough shape to firmly grip a spike.) That number will be equal to, or less than the count of total ties and is a bigger determining factor in how the track conditions are rated.