The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-10-14
STEEL AND CONCRETE TIES.
Durability and Effectiveness of Sew
eral Forms of SleeDerS.s

Durability and Effectiveness of Sew
eral Forms of Sleepers.s
From the New York Tribune:
Within the last few years some
useful information about two kinds
of railway. ties has been made access
sible to the general public. Though
1t is not as complete as could be de-
sired, 1t is now possible-perhaps
for the first time-to compare the
cost of the principal substitutes
which have been proposed for the
wooden tie.
In it's latest issue Engineering
News gives a description of one OF
the many forms of steel tie which
have been invented. It is the tie
now being manufactured at one OF
the Carnegie mills in Pittsburg for
experimental service on the Penn
sylvania road. AS it weighs 1874
pounds, or one-thirteenth of ton,
it is easy to estimate its cost pretty
accurately by consulting the quota
ton for steel rails. With the latter
selling at from $25 to $28 ton,
steel ties could not be had for much
less than 81 apiece. The next pre-
ceding number of Engineering News
contained a letter regarding REIN
forced concrete ties from Samuel
Rockwell, assistant chief engineer of
the Lake Shore road, which is giving
them an extensive trial. From that
communication it appears that, in
Guiding labor and material, these
ties could be had for about so cents
each. In respect to cost alone the
advantage would seem to be with
concrete.
Durability must also be consider
ed, however. The cheapest article
of given class is not always the
best When it really becomes ad-
visable to adopt something in place
of the wooden tie it will doubtless be
necessary to revise the foregoing
figures, but the cheapness of con-
crete must be disregarded until
something is known about it's lasting
qualities A few weeks ago a short
paragraph was printed by many
newspapers to- the effect that num-
Der Of concrete ties which had been
on trial on the Lake Shore road had
been removed because they were dis
migrating. Taken by itself, that
fact was unpromising. Mr.. Rock
we'll, however, shows that it was not
representative. The few ties which
did give signs of breaking up had
been in exceptionally unfavorable
situations. Either they were near
joints in the rails or else they had
been sandwiched in between groups
of wooden ties whose greater elias
ITCHY exposed the rigid concrete tie
to special strains. Moreover, the
Lake Shore road still has about
5000 more of these ties in place,
and some of them were laid fully
three years ago. When they are ar
ranged in continuous succession,
says Mr.. Rockwell, they seem to
meet all the requirements of heavy
service. 1t thus appears that the
case has not yet been decided adj
versely to concrete, as might have
been supposed.
An enormous variety of steel ties
has been tried in the last twenty
years. Some, If not all. of those
which have failed have failed be-
cause of an incidental feature, and
not on account OF an inherent fault.
Those which were introduced on the
Northern railway in France proved
disappointing because the rivets
worked loose The so-called Carne-
gle tie, which has already had a
trial on a road running from Pitts
burg to Lake Erie. needs no rivets,
and thus far has proved satisfactory.
It is clear, then, that the contest be-
tween steel and concrete is still open,
and that a final judgment may not