Railway sleeper sizes

[Andrew Mawson]

Replacing a bridge over a stream at the back of the house. Ordered 20 'railway crossing timbers' in oak creosoted, 3M long by 280mm wide by

150mm thick having discussed my needs with the chap supplying up in Corby.

They arrived yesterday, but now I measure them they are all 250mm not

280mm in width, meaning I'm 20 x 30 = 600mm short on my bridge span. I can probably get round this problem as part of the span is actually on earth, but should I have to.

At £22 plus vat plus carriage each this was not a cheap exercise. Am I being naive expecting them to be the right size, or is their explanation that 'they do vary' reasonable?

Didn't help that the chap delivering, who spoke no English, couldn't unload them with his hi-ab as they were at the back of the lorry and at that reach were over weight - it kept alarming. They were steel banded together so not easily separable. I ended up having to unload him with my forklift.

AWEM

[Staffbull]

couldnt you just shutter a couple of concrete pads either side to take the sleepers? they would last longer as well as theyre not on earth so not sodden all the time

[Kevin Poole]

Crossing timbers were normally 12" x 6", and ordinary sleepers 10" x 5", but ordinary sleepers are only 8ft6in long.

I wonder whether they really are railway sleepers, or just big lumps of wood that the suppliers are calling sleepers. I don't recall seeing oak used - and I saw plenty of chopped up sleepers when I used to investigate derailments. Jarrah was the common hardwood.

Concrete sleepers used to be available virtually free, as many were scrapped when the pandrol fastener housings worked loose. But you really do need mechanical handling for them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Not to answer if you were short-changed or not, but you could lay them with half inch gaps between which might help drainage, and also recover almost half the lost width.

[Bernard Peek]

You can probably use the Distance Selling Regulations to reject them if you want to. This is just the situation they were created for. The seller will have to bear all of the costs.

If you ordered 20 and the average is 10% below the stated size then I don't think it's reasonable. If the seller knows they vary then they should have made sure that the average width was at least what they claimed.

[Andrew Mawson]

actually on

couldn't

unload

Yes Andrew, the original design was to lay 280mm sleepers with a 20mm gap making a 'going' per sleeper of 300mm. Don't want to make the gap any bigger than that. I can overcome the issue by increasing the concrete pads at each end of the bridge, but it hacks me off that what is supplied is not to the spec they advertise !

AWEM

[Jeff Gaines]

DSR are for people who change their mind about wanting something. Assuming the OP is a Consumer it's the Sale of Goods Act that is relevant.

[Bernard Peek]

The rights under DSR are effectively absolute. Buyers can use them for any reason they please. But they only apply for a limited period after the date of delivery. After that the buyer can still try to apply SoGA but the supplier can argue about it. Under DSR they don't have any choice but to accept the goods back and refund the entire cost including carriage both ways. If the OP has bought the goods in the course of running a business then different rules apply.

The shortfall seems to be approximately equal to two sleepers. Would the seller agree to supplying two more FoC instead of having to pay for return shipping for the 20?

[Nightjar]

They are to allow people to reject something once they have had the same opportunity to inspect the goods as they would have had if buying in a shop. That would appear to be exactly the case here.

In this case, both are applicable, unless the OP is *not* a consumer, in which case only the Sale of Goods Act applies. Rejecting under the DSRs is simpler than under the SoGA.

Colin Bignell

[The Other Mike]

The Distance Selling Regulations don't include paying for, or making a refund of, return carriage costs if the seller has specified that they won't in their terms and conditions, unless the goods are faulty.

This is very clearly explained in the OFT guide.

Sections 3.55, 3.56, 3.57

[tim....]

Noting the other replies about rejecting them under the DSR, ISTM that you are two sleepers short. If the supplier supplied you with two more sleepers free would you be happy with that solution?

It will be much easier all round that trying to return 20 sleepers.

tim

[Skipweasel]

I'd aim for nearer an inch. 3/8" will clog up very quickly with bits of gravel and the like.

[Piers Finlayson]

No help, sorry, but when I got 20 brand new oak sleepers delivered fairly recently I also found that the driver couldn't unload them as his tail lift wouldn't take the weight, and they wouldn't fit through the rear anyway :-(. The supplier assured the delivery company that I would have two strong blokes to help, which I didn't. I don't have a forklift either, so :-( again, and we had to slide the sleepers off the stack one by one onto a hastily assembled bed of old pallets. Bloody hard work.

I do have a couple of streams though, so :-).