Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-10
STEEL RAILROAD TIES.
Railroads Seeking Durable and Elias
TIC Substitute for Wood.

From the New York Tribune
A recent dispatch announced that an
order had been given for the manufacture
Of enough steel ties to equip eight miles of
track for the Pennsylvania road, and for
the same amount for the Pttsburg Rail-
ways Company. The fact that larger
quantity was not called for might be due
either to considerations Of economy or to a
conviction that further experiment was de-
sirable before a larger investment was
made. Perhaps both influences operated.
The time is probably not far distant when
the growing scarcity of timber and the
limited life Of even a chemically treated
wooden tie will render the adoption of
substitute necessary, but at present In
most parts Of this country wood Is still the
cheapest. Far-sighted railway managers
in America as well as in Europe have long
been alert to the possibility that they would
sooner or later be obliged to use a different
material and many trials of steel for this
purpose have been made in the last twenty
years. These leave no doubt concerning its
htness for the service required, but it re-
mains to be seen whether perfect form
has yet been evolved. although the patent
office files show that astonishing variety
of patterns have already been Invented,
In the first place, different means of fas-
tenfng rail to tie are required when the
latter is made of metal from those needed
when wood Is employed. On this one point
alone ingenuity has been remarkably active
Again, there has been much uncertainty
what cross section to adopt. A mere slab
might not stay in place as well as a tie
having deep fanges which would sink into
the roadbed. Finally, it is obvious that the
model which promised the best performance
might involve undue expense in manufac-
ture. The more bending, punching and
other manipulation the metal undergoes to
prepare 1t for service the greater will be
the cost of the product To combine the
highest utility with simplicity of design is
no trifiing task That result will unoues-
tionably be attained, If it has not already
been; but when the development is COM
plete 1t will be seen that an almost endless
number of practical tests and careful at
tention to details conduced thereto.
A short time ago there seemed to be a
chance that concrete might prove to be a
rival of steel as a candidate for succession
to the wooden tie. On a small scale it Is
already being employed for making fence
posts, its durability being almost equal to
as If concrete would not give perfect salts
faction. A short note in a recent issue of
Construction Pittsburg) indicates that ties
of that material which have been tried on
the Lake Shore road have begun to disinte-
CRATE under the hammering of passing
wheels. Whether the fault could be reme-
died by changing the formula of compo-
sition is a question which ought not to be
dismissed hastily. The possibility of poor
workmanship in the making of a single lot
of ties should also be needed Nevertheless,
entirely apart from the disposition to crum-
BILE, there Is another conceivable objection
to concrete 1t is more rigid than steel, and
a little hexibility in both rail and tie has
hitherto been regarded desirable In, if not
absolutely essential to, an ideal road If
that view of the case Is correct, steel Will
carry the election by large majority.