The Sea Scouts located in Portland Oregon are looking for concrete ties to be used as weights on docks, counter balances, and to control traffic in their parking lot. I would assume that railroads get some that are damaged or cracked that they can not use and throw away. Does somebody know who we should contact to see if they are willing to donate the ones they can not use?
Thanks
Timothy Calderwood, Eagle Scout
Volunteer with the Sea Scouts, BSA http://joinseascouts.com
VC of Base Maintenance
Chief Engineer of MV RELIANT
(360) 838 2525 Day
(503) 544 9315 Night and Weekends
…and how are you going to handle those ultra heavy pieces of concrete?
Damaged concrete ties tend to not be collected and hauled anywhere. They tend to be local rip rap. And fat chance that the railroad will allow you out on the R/W unescorted, uninsured and unprotected to pick those rascals up at your leisure.
Talk to CSXT/ L.B. Foster at Spokane if you insist. (closest tie plant I am aware of to you)…you would be better off talking to the local precast outfits and asking to look in their bonepile.
Weight is not an issue, they weigh under 800 pounds each. And thanks for all the feedback. I will contact CTX and see if they have any they want to donate. Is there a specific group or team that works on just tracks within a rail road? I would like to contact them also. Sorry, but my up bringing was in models and not in real life.
As has been suggested, check with your local concrete casting companies. They might, for instance, donate some parking lot pieces in exchange for a small sign in the parking lot noting their donation. If you have several such companies in the area, you might even be able to play one against another - “Well, Acme gave us 10 parking stops. What can you offer?”
Also, look for construction / demolition sites, such as where an existing store or especially a parking lot is being “redeveloped” into something else. There may be a lot of the parking lot bumpers that somebody needs to get rid of, because they won’t want to store them on site, and they probably won’t be good enough afterwards to use for the brand-new facility. The “buzzword” for this activity is often recycled, reused, or “repurposed”, as part of the “green building” movement. In a similar fashion, some guys I work with got all the “viburnum” bushes they wanted about 3 years ago when a surface parking lot was being being regraded so it could be turned into a parking deck - “Just bring your pick-up truck down at the end of the day, and we’ll dig 'em out and load them on board for you.”
Check with site development / earthmoving-type contractors, and demolition contractors, as the most likely source of leads for that type of activity.