What are the major U.S. CWR and tie manufacturers?
I think Mother Nature has a sizeable chunk of the tie market… [;)]
Koppers does a lot of ties.
As far as rail goes there are several steel mills that roll rail. There are also a number of companies that will weld existing stick rail.
LC
Is rail rolled as continuous, long pieces, or is it always welded up from shorter pieces?
Do they still stamp dates in cwr like they did the old 39-footers? we have some around here on sidings from 1908,
Chico
Just a little bit of CWR comes out of Pueblo.
According to this article in the Trains.com site, rail is still rolled in 39 foot lengths, or 78 feet in newer mills. http://trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=235
It would seem to me that the rolling process and quality control would require a fairly uniform temperature level from end to end of the rail section being rolled. Further, it would take slab weighing about 30 tons to roll out a quarter mile of 132# rail. If technically feasible, it seems that the cost of a rolling mill designed to make quarter mile lengths wouild be totally out of sight.
Given that modern welding techniques probably produce a very high quality bond, it makes sense that the quarter mile strings delivered to the field are made up of welded 39 or 78 foot lengths.
My search was quick, but I didn’t find anything on line reporting on the specific manufacturers and production capacity, but I’d think it is out there somewhere.
Some other large new tie suppliers include:
A&K Railroad Materials
Burke Parsons Bowlby
L.B. Foster
Tangent Rail Corp.
Also you can look for industry stats at the Railway Tie Association site:
LC
There are a number of new rail suppliers handling CWR out there including:
A&K Railroad Materials
L.B. Foster
Mittal Steel - Steelton (Mill)
G.A. Smith Railroad Supply
Progress Rail
Steel Dynamics (Mill) (strings up to 1,600 feet)
Sydney Steel (Mill)
Some are manufacturers (Mill) others merely distribute.
LC
There is a huge tie plant at Galesburg IL and one at Terre Haute IN. Go to either town when its hot and follow your nose!!! the creosote smell is overpowering!!! I may be wrong but BNSF might own the one at Galesburg.
The KCS has a wholly owned subsidary, Superior Tie & Timber, located in Vivian, LA. ST&T creosotes most, if not all, of the ties, bridge timbers, crossing planking, etc. used on the KCS lines with the possible exception of those in Mexico. I don’t know for a fact, but suspect the KCSdeM gets theirs from a Mexican source(s). The ties and timbers are made to KCS specs (size, grade, etc.) by independently owned sawmills and transported, mostly by truck, to the ST&T plant for preservative treatment.
Mark
What ever happened to Colorado Fuel & Iron?
Oh yeah, you can be railfanning the former Santa Fe main at an isolated country crossing near Galesburg but east of Cameron and admire the tall corn and the contented cows and the twitering birds and lovely butterflies when the wind shifts and – GACK – you feel like your throat is being seared with tar! I think it used to be the CB&Q’s own plant but I am pretty sure it is now Koppers. they have their own narrow gauge line in the plant itself complete with a small locomotive. It is very interesting to see what they get old ties in – everything from retired BN coal gons to GS gondolas that look like antiques. Years ago we went on a tour of the facility as part of a Burlington Route Historical Society convention in Galesburg. I regret not taking more pictures but that was back when I was hoarding slide film because it cost-- oh gee maybe all of $4 a roll and about the same to develop! Now I feel like an idiot of course. What was I saving my money for when there were never to be repeated picture opportunities all around me?
The plant made new ties but also reconditioned used ones by injecting resins into the cracks. I can recall when a tie replacement project involved slicing the old tie in half and throwing the halves down the embankment. A machine did this automatically. Then they discovered ways to revive those old ties so you rarely see those machines now.
Dave Nelson
PS There was a tie plant near Milwaukee in Granville and they are still dealing with the environmental issues.
CF&I is now Rocky Mountain Steel Mills (RMSM - Oregon Steel Mills)