The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-08-18
THE RAILROAD TIE PROBLEM
A Subject That Disquiets the Railroads
Not Little.

A problem Of increasing perplexity to
the railroads of this country is the
question of the tie supply. In some
places it has already become serious.
The main sources of supply are far re-
moved from the near neighborhood of
railroads. 1t was not long ago that the
railroads were concerning themselves
mainly about the questions Of the price
of ties, but of recent years there has
been anxiety lest they should be unable
to procure enough for their purpose at
any price. All sorts of more or less eX-
pensive experiments with ties have been
tried with as yet but little or no sue
cess. The most that has been done Is
probably In the direction of adapting
means of prolonging the life Of the in
dividual tie There are a great many
clever railroad men and practical chem
lists engaged In the work of invention,
and the man who discovers some COM
pound that may be cheaply manufac-
tured and will serve the purpose is sure.
to make an enormous fortune.
Not only would such an invention re-
lieve the anxiety regarding the source
of the tie supply. but it ould materially
reduce the cost of track making There
is nearly ton of steel in every thirty
feet of standard single-track railroad,
but the cost of ties in the same distance
is even greater than that of the metal.
A railroad, such as any Of the big trunk
lines running into New York, has to
buy ties by the hundreds of thousands
each year, and the order to stop buying
never goes out Of the office. They want
all they can get, and man with a
steamer-load of ties in the port of New
York would have almost as ready
market as II it were loaded with gold.
Nothing has ever been found that will
successfully take the place Of the baud
hewn tie Of young, growing timber, and
at the present rate the demand for ties
actually threatens the extinction Of the
forests of America.
Only a few figures are necessary to
demonstrate that this is not an exag-
gerated view Of the situation. A new
mile of standard single-track railroad,
without takink into consideration the
switch tracks and side tracks, requires
about forty-f1ve hundred ties. The av-
erage life of a railroad tie Is about five
years, so that in ten years railroad
will use ties at therate of about nine
thousand for every mile of track. This
means that each and every year the
Pennsylvania railroad company re-
quires two and one-half millions of ties
for that part of their system east of
Pittsburg; that the New York Central
requires nearly 100000 between New
York and Buffalo, and that the Erie
railroad requires in the neighborhood of
two million every year between Jersey
City and Salamanca. These are figures
that any one may easily verify 1t is
no wonder that thoughtful railroad men
are asking themselves the question
where the supply is coming from In one
hundred years. or fifty, or, perhaps, in
thirty. 1t is estimated that under the
best possible circumstances, and maxi
ing no allowance for fire and other ac-
cidents, it would require plot of
ground two thousand acres in extent to
grow a million ties, and 1t would re-
quire fully thirty years to develop
them.
Nothing indicates the carelessness of
American numbering methods more
than a history of the trade in railroad
eiS7' ANSN letliiOeitS1 lOullu plenty OIL
available material where the road was
TO be laid out; in few years this sup
ply became exhausted in places, and
ties had to be transported from other
places along the route still few years
and the supply had to beprocured from
places unknown to the engines whistle:
and nowadays the main supply comes
from the most inaccessible places. In |
the early days of railroa ding it was no |
uncommon thing to receive great guam |
titles of cedar and other woods which |
are now regarded as almost precious. |
0ne of the New York railroads bought |
4 shipment of ties in Virginia several
years ago, and among them were actu-
ally several carloads of black walnut
fes-and this was at time when there |
vas a distinct demand for black wal
nut in the New York markets. When |
aver the opportunity offered itself these
railroad ties were stolen
rom the road department by the car
oenters and master mechanics and were
Ised for cabinet work and made into
leSks.
AT present the best wood avaiIa BILE for
les growing in this latitude is the white
'ak, and next in value are some of the