4 NOTE ON SAIN OR SAJ. 



refuse to use it. A small consignment was sold in London in 1878 for 

 1-15 per ton. Edward Balfour, in his book on Indian Trees published 

 in 1862, says that it was much esteemed at that time as a building tim- 

 ber, being very strong and heavy, but the same defects are noted by him 

 as prevent its use in many parts at the present day. Its price at Nagpur 

 was then 5 annas per cubic foot. It has been frequently experimented 

 with for railway sleepers with very varying results. In South-Western 

 India trials on the Madras and South Indian Railway led the engineers 

 to think that the timber was not worth experimenting with further, but 

 this was doubtless due to the sleepers being supplied almost green, to the 

 influence of the sea air and the heavy rainfall during the monsoon. On 

 the Eastern Bengal State Railway much better results were obtained and 

 the timber was described as being excellent sleeper material. The average 

 age on the Kaunia-Dharla line of this Railway was 8| years, when laid 

 in earth and carrying light traffic. On the northern section the average 

 age was nearly 6 years. On the main line 10 per cent, of these sleepers 

 had to be removed the year after they were laid, the ballast being 

 shingle. The following notes were sent in by the Executive Engineer, 

 Saidpur, in 1891 : 



4,110 sleepers laid in 1881 . . 89 renewed up to date 

 2,446 1883 . . none ,, 

 1,401 ,,1885-86 . -. 119 



In 1879 the Great Indian Peninsula Railway laid down 447 sleepers, 

 of which 59 had decayed and been replaced in 1883, the engineer remark- 

 ing that it seemed very liable to crack and be attacked by dry rot. 



The approximate life of the timber as sleepers was given by the 

 Chief Engineer, Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, in 1910, as 5 

 to 10 years. 



Some untreated sleepers laid down in 1907 in the Rangoon-Mandalay 

 line were found to be sound but rather badly split at the beginning of 

 1911. The Bengal and North- Western Railway put down 2/>65 sleepers 

 in 1899, and had to replace 852 in 1903, the remainder being removed to 

 an unimportant branch. 



About the year 1880, a large number of sleepers were put down in 

 the Bengal-Nagpur Railway between Umaria and Kutni but 40 per cent, 

 had to be removed by 1893. 



In 1886, 496 sleepers were laid down in the Rohilkhand and Kumaon 

 Railway, and 57 per cent, remained sound in 1895. 



