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The ties in question are a new type of composite material that includes among other things ground glass and used pulverized tires. They are injection molded by some very large and sophisticated machines. One of these machines was manufactured in Salt Lake City, UT and sent to Texas recently. The Union Pacific Rairoad has oredered one million ties at approximately $55.00 per tie and plans to replace ties in the sourthern region of their rairoad in areas where wooden ties especially are beginning to deteriorate. These ties are not like the old "plastic" ties. They are extremely tough and durable with an estimated life span of over 200 years. They have a "memory" in that they can be hand or machine spiked and the material will shrink around the spike and hold them in extremely well. The ties will resemble a wooden tie in color and texture having an ingrained pattern to give the ties "tooth" that will prevent movement or slippage in the ballast. Each tie weighs in at over 250 plus pounds and can be made in various sizes and lengths. (Compared to other types of ties the cost factor is getting close with $45.00 a tie being average in price for the others.) I would look for many more of these types of ties in the future with the cost of wooden tie replacement going up, and the cost of the newer plastic ties going down especially with more railroads starting to use them . The potential envionmental savings brought about by using recycled componants with the added benefit of being less damaging to the environment than their chemically preserved predesessors, plus the fact that they won't need replacing for an extremelly long period of time, would seem to make very good economic sense.
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