ARBORICULTURE 



377 



Railway Cross Ties. 



The inventive genius of Americans has 

 been largely employed during the past 

 quarter of a century in an endeavor to 

 adapt some substance or combination of 

 materials as a support and fastening for 

 steel rails, and which should become a 

 substitute for wooden cross ties. 



The cost of buying ties is not the great- 

 est expense. Transportation often becomes 

 a very great factor in estimates. And 

 when to the ordinary transportation there 

 is added freight to and from a treating 

 plant, it adds materially to the total cost. 



The constant tearing up of the roadbed, 

 removal and disposition of the decayed or 

 worn ties and their replacement with new 

 ties is the great cost of track maintenance 

 of all railways. 



When ties can be placed in position and 

 remain thirty-five years as it may be when 

 catalpa is used, the cost of repairs will not 

 be ten per cent of the present expenditure. 

 This question is therefore of moment to 

 stockholders and financiers who supply the 

 cash with which to pay these bills, to know 

 that these expenses can be greatly reduced. 



Steel and iron in innumerable forms 

 have been tried ; ties of vitrified clay, 

 wire combinations, glass, concrete alone 

 and in combination with metal have been 

 devised ; solid stone and many other sub- 

 stances have been experimented with and 

 patents for improved cross ties form a 

 large collection in Washington. 



Even before the general public began to 

 realize that timber might become a scarce 

 article in America, at an early period, 

 engineers and thoughtful men were antici- 

 pating such scarcity and pondering as to 

 what could take the place of wood. But 

 so far there has been no substitute discov- 

 ered which is sufficiently economical, adapt- 

 able, and so satisfactory as wooden ties. 



A certain degree of elasticity is essen- 

 tial, where the jars of a heavy railway 

 train, with the terrible forces which are 

 exerted in side thrusts, especially on short 

 curves, for no matter how solid it is 

 thought best to make the road bed, there 

 must yet be an elastic cushion beneath the 

 rails, and no substance is so well adapted 



to receive and overcome these continuous 

 blows as wood. 



One of the latest designs for ties is a 

 reversed T rail imbedded in cement con- 

 crete, the rails being bolted to the metal 

 flange of the tie. 



A few such ties have been used, being 

 placed between regular oak sleepers in 

 the track, and have apparently stood this 

 test, but it is probable if such concrete ties 

 were continuous, and required to support 

 the entire traffic, unaided by intermediate 

 ties of wood, that they would soon disinte- 

 grate under the vibration and jarring of 

 heavy trains. 



In a foundry it is the practice when 

 breaking up heavy castings for the pur- 

 pose of remelting, to let a heavy iron 

 weight fall from an elevation upon the 

 metal to be broken. 



The force thus employed to reduce solid 

 masses of metal is very slight as com- 

 pared with that exerted by heavy freight 

 trains moving around reversed curves. 

 Often there are two powerful engines pull- 

 ing in one direction, the rear of the long 

 train is acting with great force in a con- 

 trary course while intermediate portions 

 of the train jump from side to side with an 

 incalculable momentum. It is not diffi- 

 cult to account for spreading of rails, 

 broken rails and strained track which is 

 not discovered until some fast express 

 train finds the break and rolls into the 

 ditch. 



If beneath the castings at the foundry 

 there is a solid foundation the repeated 

 blows soon fracture the metal. But if 

 there be an elastic cushion beneath, it 

 may be pounded a year before it will 

 yield. 



The old experiment of an athlete sup- 

 porting an anvil on his chest while a com- 

 rade rains heavy blows upon the iron, is 

 but another illustration of this subject. 

 Bolt a hundred pound steel rail to an 

 inflexible metal or concrete tie and some- 

 thing must give way under the frequent 

 passage of heavy traffic. Bolts must give 

 way as they do in frog crossings and con- 

 stant repairs become necessary. 



