Creosote

When CSX ripped out the RF&P’s Potomac Yard I was suprised to see that quite a few unsalable ties were processed with a tubgrinder. They were shredded into a kind of course mulch, loaded into walking bottom trailers, and hauled off site to somewhere. I am told that the shredded ties were mixed with coal and burned in coal fired power plants as an alternative fuel. This is what I was told by another railfan. I don’t know this for sure but is seems logical. My bet is that it was hauled to a industrial waste incenerator or landfill for that kind of stuff, What I do know is that the tub grinder was having a time with stray tie plates and spikes. But after a couple of weeks they had ground thousands of ties into thousands of cubic yards of cresote wood much. The pile did not stay long before it was all hauled away but it stunk the high heavens while it was there.

I believe that plastic ties will someday be R&D’d to achieve the strength of wood. Concrete ties last long but they have an almost 100% destruction rate in a derailment or dragging equipment situation. They are brittle and easily broken in these situations. As far as wood preservatives go CCA is on it’s way out, ACQ is to caustic to fasteners so I guess we’ll have good ol’ king creosote for some time to come.

Well, for Cherokee Woman, I don’t like Brussels sprouts, either. Broccoli, now, that’s a different story - must be the creosote-loving gene in me. Tell Walt he’s supposed to steam the broccoli, not boil it to death.[dinner]

I wonder if using shredded automobile/truck tires and bonding them into the shape of a tie would work. It might get rid of the landfill waste, and besides, the damned things never rot. I don’t think a fire hazard would exist, since creosote would be more likely to burn than tires. I dunno - what’s the ignition temperature of creosote vs. old tires?

Joe-All I know is that if you have a big enough stack of tires catch fire, they will burn, and burn, and burn, and burn… But a good idea. I’d guess if you want to generate support for that (after you get the patent),get on forums for environmentalists and firemen.

Jay

During the Great Depression my father worked at the tie plant in Galesburg. He once told me that ill people use to go to the tie plant to breath the fumes to get cured.

From some of the cure-alls they had back when - it is no wonder most of them didn’t live past 40’s and 50’s. Ack…

Hey, you never know - the fumes might have actually helped something. Many “home remedies” have a basis in fact, even if modern scientific medicine doesn’t see it that way. Then again, it may have been a case of hitting your thumb with a hammer so you don’t notice the pain from the sunburn any more…

And remember, strichnine can be an aphrodasiac in the appropriate dose… I have no idea what the dose is, and don’t intend to find out. One missed decimal point and, well, you get the idea.

Professional Driver, Closed Course. Don’t Try This At Home!

Got a splinter in my knee - about 8-10 years old. Grma told me a poultice of egg shells and Denver Mud would draw that splinter right out of my knee. Wore that sucker for several days before Mom pinned me down and took it out the old fashioned way - with a sterlized needle. Hurt like the dickens, which the egg shells didn’t. But it started healing right away!

Glad Grma wasn’t around when I fractured my leg around that time!

Anyone want some BROCOLLI?[:p]

PLEASE don’t eat the railroad ties!

Hey Mookie, what the heck is Denver Mud (other than the obvious “mud” from “denver”)?

Speaking of Denver, one of the best ski trips I ever took was to Winter Park, CO. Not only could you see the ski train coming out the Moffat Tunnel, but the place I stayed was only yards from the track a mile or so North of the tunnel. The sound of the trains coming up the grade was enough to wake the dead, but I loved it!

Mud? - It was “snirt” when it blew outta here![swg]

snirt = combination of flying snow and dirt, usually followed by a thundersnowstorm in the spring…typical Colorado weather - if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes!

Northwesterner - Kinda quiet at the tunnel up the hill now with the tunnel maintenance curfew in effect!

You know - I don’t have a clue what Denver Mud was - but it came in a glass squat jar and was the color of mud. People used it for a variety of external ailments. We had some in our medicine chest - probably something from the 40’s. Dad always said it was used to “draw” things out of the skin - (like my splinter) and yes, it was his mother that told my mother it should be put on with the egg shells to draw out that splinter.

We - east of Denver - get a lot of ****-eyed things from Denver - Denver Sandwich, Denver Omelet, Denver Mud, snirt and an occasional dirty chicken feather…