How Common are Steel Ties?
Following Images show Steel Ties thru Turnout. Note Holes in Tops and Flanged Ends of Ties.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any myself.
I saw a pile of steel ties at Echo, Utah. There was also a partially full rail train nearby so they must of been planned for use in some rail upgrade in the area.
dd
Steel ties are fairly new (in railroad terms that means they could be up to 20 years old) to Class 1 usage. I first saw them in a new yard the DWP built near Superior, WI in the mid 80’s. Since then, I know CP has used them to gain clearance room in the Spiral Tunnels, for example. They also have used them on new bridge construction where they needed to reduce track raises. You gain about 4" versus a conventional wood tie if you are trying to increase clearances, reduce track raises, etc.
They are a little hard to get used to for the track forces that have to maintain the track after they are installed. Because of their design (they are typically a formed piece of sheet steel that, in cross section, looks like an upside down “U” with the sides pushed out so it forms a hollow pocket) it takes a few tamping cycles to get the ballast firmly packed up into the pocket under the tie. Until that happens the track will settle. Once they lock in, though, they do stay put.
CP is the only one I know who is using them on anything like a regular basis in main lines. Your photo shows a switch in a side track, where signaling is not an issue. Steel ties, as with concrete ties, need those pesky insulated pads in signal territory, so you have introduced a potential problem area that wood ties don’t have.
I would imagine they are a lot more expensive than wood or even concrete ties. Although with used rail laying around perhaps it could be recycled into steel ties?
They were fairly common in Europe years ago.Some dated to at least before WW2.
What is the cost difference between steel and wood ties?
I prefer wood ties to either steel or concrete. If you go on the ties on wood, you just frog back on and go unless you have shoved the rail out of guage.
With steel ties (and concrete), such a move is not possible because when you go on the ties there, you damage the tie byond service limitations and it must be replaced prior to any further movement. Steel ties do have one real benefit - once you have to remove them, you just sell them for scrap – something you can not due with other types of ties. No haz-mat concerns. No land fill concerns.
Steel ties were first used, I think, in places where there was extreme heat that would destroy wood ties. Ash pits for steam locomotives and steel mills come to mind. A more recent trend seems to be to use them in key locations where it would be hugely inconvenient to take a track out of service to switch out a tie. For example looking over the railing on the Thurlwell Street Bridge in Galesburg (don’t get dizzy and fall over!) one can see some steel ties on some of the key switches east of the hump.
From a book keeping perspective while a steel tie is obviously more expensive from an outlay basis than wood or concrete its resale/scrap value is much higher so in that sense might be less expensive on a true “cost” balance sheet basis.
Dave Nelson
Steel ties go way back in time. A large portion of the Ferrocarril Mexicano, between Mexico City and Veracruz, (which was the first railroad opened in Mexico when it was completed in 1873), had steel ties manufactured in England. So I would guess that they were used in Europe (or at least in the UK) before then.
The climate in a lot of the country is wet and isn’t favorable for wood ties. That’s why concrete ties are so common these days on the main lines down here.
Regards
Ed