NEW YORK — Track construction and maintenance firm RailWorks Corp. is acquiring NARSTCO, which manufactures steel ties and turnout sets. NARSTCO, baed in Midlothian, Texas, makes ties from recycled steel, which eliminates the need for creosote,...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/09/26-railworks-acquires-steel-tie-firm-narstco
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Folks in the practical field, especially including dirty birds:
Is there actually an increased take rate for this technology? Have there been recent improvements that make it fully competitive with alternative approaches? (And has there been some sort of 'breakthrough' comparable to the effect of fracking technology on the prospects for natural-gas production a couple of decades ago?)
I have seen right of ways using only steel or only wood ties but never steel. Are there any railroads that have ROWs using only steel ties?
There have been a couple of attempts to get steel ties used, one of which (Carnegie, around the WW1 era) we discussed in some detail here a few years ago.
They were used in harsh environments such as desert railroads, and in industrial plants. If you look at the NARSTCO Web site you can see some of the current 'first best uses'. In my opinion they are very ill-suited to any kind of high-speed operation regardless of ballast and grade used as it's difficult to provide adequate compliance and damping at all, let alone cost-effectively, with pressed construction.
Part of our yard has steel ties. They have held up the past couple years. Those combined with welded rail make moving cars very quiet. Have to be careful.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
zugmann Part of our yard has steel ties. They have held up the past couple years. Those combined with welded rail make moving cars very quiet. Have to be careful.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
When Triple Crown added switching leads to their yard, they used a lot of steel ties, especially in the switches.
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