The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-04
WHY OLD TIES ARE BURNED
Fuel Is Only Purpose, and Their
Transportation Is a Problem.


Transportation Is Problem.
why old railroad ties are burned,
is question that some economist fire.
quently asks and it was often pro-
pounded during the recent world war
when the nation was being urged to
conserve every resource as much as
posi- BILE. Now Samuel Porcher, gem
eral purchasing agent of the Pennsyl-
vania system, has come forward with
the following statement explaining
why the practice is a common one;
Piles of WORKOUT cross ties in
process of being burned up by repair
gangs are a fairly familiar sight along
railroad rights of way. Every now
and then someone observing this prac-
tice writes a letter to the manage
ment of the railroad, or more often to
a newspaper, protesting against what
he supposes to be a needless waste,
and raising the question why the rail-
road companies do not allow people to
take the old ties for fuel, or find some
other use for them. The question is
not an unnatural one, and the Penn
sylvania railroad management is glad
to answer it,
In the first place, it is far from true
that all the old ties are burned. A
considerable number are sold to per-
sons living on or near the right OF
way, who buy them at nominal prices,
usually ten or fifteen cents apiece.
and use them for fire-wood.
That is about as far as the railroad
company has been able to go, thus far,
in finding an outlet for worn out ties.
Such a method of disposal is prac-
ticable only in those cases where the
ties can be delivered at a public cross
ing, or other point, where they can be
obtained safely by the users, and
where the cost of so delivering them is
not greater than the nominal prices
obtainable.
The company cannot sanction the
public going prOmiScuously over tracks
and thru yards to gather up old ties,
as to do so would be practically let
ting down the bars against trespass-
ing on the tracks, an evil against
which the Pennsylvania railroad has
struggled for years, and which has
been the cause of about half of all
the fatal accidents on railroads in
the United States. ;
Efforts have been made to interest
dealers IN fire-wood in buying the
old ties, but not thus far with much
success. The causes appear to be that
the old ties are often dirty; that they
contain more or less stone. grit and
Stag wedged in the cracks, which
might injure the saws used in cutting
them; that in many cases they are
partly decayed; that they are dried
OuL, anu That lil0lE ltD0E Is OA
less crushed, SO that they burn out too
quickly. These are among the rea-
sons assigned by dealers who have
not been willing to pay the railroad
company enough to- cover the cost of
collecting the ties and delivering them
to point at which they could be re-
moved.
Efforts have also been made to dis
pose of old ties in a number of other
ways, including sale for wood pulp
purposes, for the extraction of chem
| icals, for burning and sale of the
ashes for fertilizer, and for manufac-
ture into charcoal, but without sue
cess in interesting parties engaged
in these occupations.
The company will be glad to con-
tinue, and wherever feasible to ex-
tend. the present practice of selling
old ties to individual consumers for
nominal prices, at points where they
can be delivered without danger to