Creosote and railroad ties

[micky]

Creosote and railroad ties

AIUI, creosote doesn't prevent rot, it merely deters it, that is, slows it down or delays it (and not as well as arsenic products).

So what about railroad ties.

They seem to last for 50 or 100 years or more. Do they have to be replaced because of rot? All of them? If not all of them, does that mean that the creosote stopped them from rotting?

Or do they replace them all, when I'm not looking?

If they last for 100 years when used for railroad ties, how come they don't last that long when used to support decks, etc.?

[trader_4]

I guess it depends on what your definition of rot is, but sure they deteriorate over time and have to be replaced. When I was a kid, you could walk along the Central RR of NJ tracks and pull many spikes out with your fingers. Not that it's a good idea to do that.....

It certainly greatly increases their lifespan.

IDK when or what you're looking at. They've been using concrete ties now for a long time. IDK if they no longer use wood ties at all.

From what I can see, I doubt typical RR tie lasts for 100 years. Maybe half that if they are lucky. I don't have any experience with them used for domestic purposes, but I suspect a lot of them are probably not new ones, but old ones that are discarded by the RR folks. I don't know anyone selling them around here.

[Dean Hoffman]

Probably because the ones used for decks, etc. are used. Orscheln Farm & Home sells them.

[gfretwell]

I think the issue with creosote was environmental, not how effective it was. Railroad ties were on railroad property where people were not supposed to go in the first place so they let them get away with it longer than things people put in their yards. I have some creosote dock posts that have been in salt water for 50 years and they may have been discarded telephone poles at the time. They are pretty well gone but they lasted twice as long as 2.5 CCA PT.

[micky]

I meant, as you probably all guessed, how come the wood used for decks doesn't last as long as railroad ties. Not that ties are used to hold up decks.

So the answer is half-way between. They stil rot.

Just what I needed to know.

Thank you all.

P.S. I do still see wooden ties at least two of the places I go. One is the Monocasy Battlefiled just south of Frederick Maryland, where the railroad tracks run right through the battle area. And another is near the Thomas Viaduct, where the famous race between a railroad engine and a horse took place. I've been to both of these places in the last two months and I'm 99.9% sure the ties were of wood. Some of these tracks are used some but not very much.

[Dan Espen]

They definitely wear out, I lived near tracks and the ties are periodically replaced.

On railroad tracks, they sit in a bed of rocks. Water runs right through the rocks leaving the ties high and dry most of the time.

I had some creosote landscape ties on my property that rot out from underneath.

I've got a pressure treated 2x6 on the ground now for more than 20 years without any visible rot. The board is on edge holding back a brick pathway.

[micky]

Aha.

In another forum, someone used "deter" probably to mean stop. So I looked up deter in dictionary.com and its first meaning is discourage... and its second is to "prevent, check, arrest: creosote deters rot."

And it's clear to me that whoever wrote that definition of deter thought creosote was more effectiive than it is. It doesnt' prevent rot, it just slows it down. It delays the time when rot is a real problem.

That's the reason the people who make and advertise creosote use the word deter and not the word stop.

My pressure treated deck lasted over 20 years, but somewhere before 30 years, the non-treated railings fell apart, the treated joists were rotting, and some of the planks were curling, in the part not under the

2nd floor overhang. That part, almost 2 feet, is still good after a total of 36 years. .

[Tekkie®]

micky posted for all of us...

Ever smell creosote? It doesn't mix will with BBQ and is poisonous and gooey.