METRA's plastic ties

[edahrenhoerster]

A few years ago I read a brief item in Trains to the effect that METRA was testing some ties made of recycled plastic. Has anyone heard how this is working out?

[Anonymous]

No, but I have heard that there are machines that can compress recycled plastic into diffrent shapes and diffrent densities, and you can even make plastic blocks that are more dense then concrete, so it is probobally possible.

[Anonymous]

I was walking aroud in a ns yard and I saw a rubber rail plate i guess it could have been plastic, i was wondering if it was some test product.

[Anonymous]

I don't know about METRA, but I'm an employee of the Black River & Western Railroad in Ringoes, New Jersey, and I know that we've had some plastic ties in our track for a few years now. We were and are testing them for the company which manufactures them- don't know the name. Rumor has it the ties last up to 100 years, as opposed to the usual 50 years of wood, or 75+ of concrete. The plastic ties actually hold up quite well; to my knowledge there have been no problems with them (although I don't work with the track crew!).

[cprted]

In the live steam world we have dicovered superwood (recycled plastic) as a excellent material for ties. They are strong, reuseable and they don't rot. Though our trains are only 1/8 full size, you still deal with several thousand pounds of weight as a train loaded with passengers passes over. I don't see why it couldn't work for the prototype.

[Anonymous]

You're right Ted, they're great. Just recently we began replacing a lot of rotted ties (on BR&W)and we're replacing them all with plastic ties: we wouldn't be buying them if they were no good! (I hope.)