50 



The engineer will reject, either before or after delivery, any sleepers wliicli do not 

 comply vrith the ahove conditions, or any sleepers the sap-wood of which has not 

 been fully creosoted. 



(1) Lancashire and Yoekshire Railway. 



The ties, after being well seasoned, are passed through a combined adzing and 

 boring machine, which first cuts out a seat about one-sixteenih of an inch deep for 

 the chairs, in order to give them a uniform bearing, and then simultaneously bores 

 the eight holes required for chair fastenings in each tie. The machine will seat and 

 bore about one hundred ties per hour. 



The ties are then placed on small iron trucks and drawn on a tramway of 3-foot 

 gauge into the cylinder, which contains eight trucks with forty-seven ties each, or 

 three hundred and seventy-six ties in all. The cylinder is 77 feet long, 6 feet internal 

 diameter, built of one-half-inch wrought-iron plates and having egg-shaped ends. 

 When the full number of ties has been put in, the doors or covers are put on and 

 hermetically fastened by means of dog-bolts and screws, and the air exhausted by 

 a steam ejector. The creosote is then introduced, heated to a temperature of from 

 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit; the air-pump then ceases to work and the x^ressure 

 pump is put into operation, the full pressure of 150 pounds x^er square inch bein^ 

 obtained in about ten minutes; this pressure is maintained for about fifty minutes 

 .ind is then withdrawn. The spare creosote is allowed to run back into the reservoir 

 under tho cylinder, the cover is removed, and after the ties have been left to drip for 

 about fiftj"^ minutes, they are taken out of the cylinder. About 3 gallons of creosote 

 arc allowed for each tie, or 9^ pounds per cubic foot of timber. The eflficiency of the 

 process is ascertained by weighing three or four ties out of every charge, both before 

 and after the Ofjeration^ the additional weight showing the quantity absorbed, which 

 averages about 30 pounds per tie : 



PoUQii*. 



Average weight of tie before creosoting 128 



Gain in weight during process 30 



Average weight of creosoted tie loS 



The whole operation for one charge of ties occupies about one hundred and thirty- 

 two minutes, as follows, but varies slightly, however, according to the moisture in 



the timber: 



Minutes. 



Ejection vacuum. 13 



Pumping commenced and tank filled 9 



Full pressure obtained in 10 



Full pressure maintained for C0 



Spare creosote allowed to drip from ties 50 



Total..... 132 



From the creosoting cylinder the timbers are run back into the chairing shed, where 

 the chairs are attached to the ties by a machine (somewhat on the style of a steam 

 hammer) which, at one stroke, drives the four fastenings for each chair. This 

 machine will "chair" about seventy ties per hour. 



The time occupied in seating, boring, creosoting,- and chairing three hundred and 



seventv-six ties is as follows : 



Hrs. Min. 



Stating and baring 3 40 



Running trucks into cylinder 20 



Creosoting 2 12 



Withdrawing charge from cylinder 20 



Chairing 5 14 



Total 11 4(5 



or 1 minute and 53 seconds per tie. 



