Re: Why Wooden Sleepers are better. Was [NSW] CityRail Delays Friday

[matthew@mail.usyd.edu.au (Matthew Geier)]

In article <38E06B26.4BBDA5CB@fastlink.com.au>,
The Railway Rasputin II  <bob@fastlink.com.au> wrote:
>Well you'd better tell the sleeper supply companies that.
>The last batch of 2000 sleepers we got were pine.
>:-)

 That has to be wrong. Pine is a softwood. It wouldnt last more than
2 years out on a normal piece of track - it would rot at an amazing
rate, and the spikes would tend to pull out as the wood would not be
hard enough to hold them in.

 Pine sleepers would have to be copper-cyanide treated and the sleeper
plates screwed in, not dogged. (And pine plantations are very hard on
the soil, causing other soil conservation issues).

 Now what is more environmentally friendly, a soft wood treated with
copper-cynaide, a hard-wood from a tree that took 100 years to grow,
or a concrete sleeper made out of 'dirt' dug up out of the ground.

 Given how much longer the concrete ones last, even with all the mining
involved, they probably come out ahead in the 'greenie' stakes!.