Picking up the pieces

[Murphy Siding]

     Last summer a big BNSF crew with a lot of equipment came through and replaced a lot of ties on the line out back.  The old ties were stacked rather neatly, I presume to make it easy to pick them up later. About every other mile there is a pile 10' high and 250' long.  Who picks these up?  The regular MOW crew?  A dedicated pick-up crew that followers the replacement gang (a year later.)? A private contractor? Please tell me that worn out ties no longer get sold into the landscape sector- ug!

[jeffhergert]

On the UP, I've seen a private contractor picking up the ties.  Ties that have some life in them might end up reused on sidings and other tracks.  Either on the home road or sold to short lines or tourist operators.  I know B&SV uses used ties.

Jeff   

[dehusman]

On the BNSF I have seen a Herzog tie pick up train that is a SW1200 rebuilt into a power/control car coupled to a 5 pack well car with a tie crane that travels on rails along the well car sides.

[tree68]

I'm pretty sure that old ties now need to be "remediated."  They can't just be turned loose on the populace.

As noted, some that are still usable may find use as relays, and some may be used for railroad "landscaping" (to stop hillside slippage), but the rest are likely headed for a contractor to be properly disposed of.

CSX did the same stacking thing along the St Lawrence Sub a couple of years ago.  Those stacks are now long gone.

It's a lot different than when they just tossed them down the embankments - evidence of which can still be seen in places.

[NorthWest]

Here BNSF follows MOW crews a few days later with a hi-rail flatbed truck equipped with stake sides and a small crane.

[Overmod]

Murphy Siding

Please tell me that worn out ties no longer get sold into the landscape sector- ug!

Big business around here, at least:

[Murphy Siding]

Overmod

 

Murphy Siding

Please tell me that worn out ties no longer get sold into the landscape sector- ug!

 

 

Big business around here, at least:

 

When I worked for a lumberyard that sold ties, we never saw a single one as nice as the ones shown on Bob's website.

[mudchicken]

The better ones may find use as #2 or #3 relay ties (if they can still hold a spike) on an industry track or a shortline  (sometimes used as dump planks, etc.). The splinters and dregs usually find their way into a co-generation plant as part of the fuel burned. The railroad probably put them out to bid and is waiting on the the tie gypsies (Like TYO in Omaha to come get-em)

State to state, the rules on cascaded used ties varies. Some are stubbornly holding to the belief that used ties still hold the same amount of creosote as new ties and that nature hasn't taken the usual course.

[Murphy Siding]

Can the life of a used tie be extended by shifting the tie 6" left or right, or flipping it over, so that the spikes go in unsplintered wood?

[BOB WITHORN]

Saw a stack of old ties at one of the landscape companies in the South Bend, In area last weekend.

[SD70M-2Dude]

CN went on a huge tie-cleanup kick a few year ago (probably as part of the "eco-connections" PR program).  Most (if not all) of the giant mile-long wooden tie piles along the track were removed (concrete ties remain).  Today all old ties are picked up by Engineering forces or contractors with a grapple-equipped crawler excavator on a flatcar (or the afore-mentioned Herzog units) for loading into old hopper cars or gondolas, which are usually lettered BLE or EJE and are presumably castoffs from coal/iron ore traffic on those lines.  All those ties are shipped to a hazardous waste incinerator/cogeneration plant somewhere down east (Quebec I believe) where they are chipped and then burned to generate electricity.

I am unaware of the legality of using railroad ties for landscaping in Canada, but I do know you cannot burn them outdoors anymore, or throw them in a dumpster (most landfills consider them hazardous waste and will not take them).  Nevertheless some folks continue to sell and/or use them in the garden.

[rdamon]

I can get them at my local Home Depot ..

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Used-Railroad-Tie-Cresote-Treated-Common-7-in-x-9-in-x-8-ft-Actual-96-in-5100000070908000/100023488

[BaltACD]

rdamon

I can get them at my local Home Depot ..

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Used-Railroad-Tie-Cresote-Treated-Common-7-in-x-9-in-x-8-ft-Actual-96-in-5100000070908000/100023488

Not available in stores in my area (clicked on the link)

[rdamon]

Store #121 shows 586 in stock.  I wonder if you can get them with free shipping from Amazon :)

[Deggesty]

rdamon

Store #121 shows 586 in stock.  I wonder if you can get them with free shipping from Amazon :)

 

[Murphy Siding]

rdamon

Store #121 shows 586 in stock.  I wonder if you can get them with free shipping from Amazon :)

 

Yup!  It would be a pretty darn big drone that drops them off.

[Victrola1]

 In the account, Lawrence records that he led an ambush on a Turkish military train. While surveying the site of that attack, the team found a spent bullet that was fired from a Colt 1911 automatic pistol, a weapon that would have been extremely rare in the Middle East at the time—and that Lawrence is known to have carried. 

http://www.archaeology.org/issues/221-1607/trenches/4550-trenches-jordan-lawrence-bullet

What will be left of interest for future archeologists digging along the right of way? 

 

[Overmod]

Victrola1

What will be left of interest for future archeologists digging along the right of way?

Mike, post the link to the old NYC&HR drivers found sticking up in the riprap along the Hudson... there's more out there than you might expect.

Still making plans to retrieve the Hudson trailing truck with booster from the Gulf Summit curve area... eventually...

[tree68]

Victrola1

What will be left of interest for future archeologists digging along the right of way?   

Folks are getting fussy about what gets buried these days...

County highway just put in a new culvert pipe next door.  Before they covered it, I threw in several 2016 pennies.  One of these days, this pipe will get dug up (as was its predecessor, to install this one) and someone will find one of the pennies and say, "Boy, is that old..."

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Murphy Siding

Can the life of a used tie be extended by shifting the tie 6" left or right . . .

No.  That's not far enough to get away from the deteriorated area.  If you go further, then the short side doesn't have enough bearing area to support the train; plus, it's then more prone to splitting all the way out to the end.   

Murphy Siding

Can the life of a used tie be extended by . . . flipping it over, so that the spikes go in unsplintered wood?

Sometimes yes, but that's a really bottom-of-the-barrel practice.  The spikes are still going into the deteriorated area, so the tie won't hold up for long.  For all the labor cost or time that's involved - typically ~3 to 5 times the price of a new tie - it's 'penny-wise and pound-foolish'.  The exception is unless there's nothing else readily available (derailment site) or the expected use is really short, such as moving equipment to a static display at a museum, etc.

- Paul North. 

 

[vbeach]

I was working on a road project back around 1980 and we were scraping up the old pavement and I found a ladies Timex watch just under the old asphalt. The band was shot but I cleaned up the watch and got it working. Like the old ads said, "takes a licking and keeps on ticking".