I read somewhere that recycled plastic railroad ties work better than wooden ones. Would be a handy way to rid ourselves of some of the plastic that ends up in landfills.
And possibly create lots of small plastic fragments from the friction with the stones.
Meh. Better than cutting down trees and covering them in arsenic and benzene that leeches into the soil.
https://www.disposeofthings.com/do-old-railroad-ties-leach-chemicals-into-the-soil/
These look like concrete to me?
Concrete seems to be the preferred choice, and for high-speed lines, the only choice. I’m guessing that places still using wood do so because it’s cheaper and line speeds don’t need anything better.
I’ve seen studies where they use tracers to monitor the flow of ballast over time as a function of particle size. There’s a lot of research into what works as ballast and why; minimizing cost or frequency of maintenance is a huge financial incentive.
This was in an episode of Ruri Rocks recently, I had never heard of it until then.
I haven’t watched, but the comic is very cute and informative.
Thanks, i was actually wondering about this stuff lately.
Its also hard to run on. Wait for that train to stop before ya jump on!
There is a quarry in BC that supplies most of the ballast for western canada. It is pretty much a national security vulnerability.
