2672 



Chapter 22 



Figure 22-59. — Plate cut in oak mainline crossties. 



In addition to splits, plate cut, and decay in the crossties, the spikes may lose 

 their ability to resist withdrawal when the rails flex under load; such failure is 

 termed spike kill and is manifested by spike heads raised above the tie plate, and 

 by loss of control of track gauge. 



Readers interested in track maintenance will find useful the Railway 

 Engineering and Maintenance Encyclopedia (Howson 1942). 



Crosstie initial cost. — Josephson (1977) analyzed the initial cost of treated 

 wood and of concrete crossties for heavily traveled mainline tracks (table 22- 

 22). He found that wood ties with conventional tie plates and spaced on 19-'/2- 

 inch centers have an installed cost of $34 each of $1 10,500 per mile; concrete 

 ties on 24-inch spacing were predicted to have an installed cost of $60.50, or 

 $159,720 per mile of track. Thus the wood ties on 19- '/2-inch spacing, with 

 standard tie plates, cost only 69 percent as much as concrete crossties. If wood 

 ties were spaced 21-!/4 inches apart with conventional plates, cost per mile 

 should be $101,400; if these more widely spaced wood ties were equipped with 

 Pandrol fasteners (a system considered superior to conventional spikes), 

 installed cost would be $127,000 per mile. 



