Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1915 — PRESERVATION OF TIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PRESERVATION OF TIES

MATTER HAS BECOME IMPORTANT TO RAILROADB. Chemicals Called to Aid in Lengthening the Life of indispensable Unit of Operation—How the Work is Done. The tree question is of serious import to the railroads of the country. Our forests have for many years been stripped of their trees at an alarming rate, and as a consequence the price of, logs in the rough and lumber, dressed and undressed, has advanced by leaps and bounds. Some of the railroads have endeavored to meet the situation by planting trees along the right of way, but with indifferent success. Many of them have to buy ties from along the lines of other roads, but up to the present time the Baltimore & Ohio has been able to secure a sufficiency along its own route, not, however, at anything like the favorable prices which obtained ten or fifteen years ago. Hence the motive in conserving the timber belts by practicing greater economy in the useb thereof, and to preserve by the injection of chemicals that which they are forced to buy. The annual requirements of the Baltimore & Ohio for renewals alone are 2,500,000 ties, which Involve for this one item of track maintenance an expenditure of approximately $1,500,000 a year for the material delivered at the learest siding to the woods from which it is cut. The tie par excellence is of white oak, but the red oak family is largely used and the preservation system used at Green Spring, Md., enables the company to employ large quantities of pine, beech, gum, maple, elm and ash. These latter woods have hitherto been considered too fragile and the period of their longevity too brief to warrant employment, especially under heavy traffic. For in grounding ties, matter of frequent removals and replacements, due to early decay, involved an enormous outlay for labor account. Now, however, all of the woods named can be, and are being, successfully and economically used by the Baltimore & Ohio. The treatment given ties at Green Spring is what Is known as the Card process, named after the inventor. The Ingredients of the composition in'which the wood is saturated are zinc chloride and coal tar creosote. The average quantity absorbed is half a pound of zinc chloride and three pounds of creosote per cubic foot of timber. The cost of treatment is about twenty-five cents a tie, inclusive of labor, composition, depredation of plant and interest on the Investment. The average life of a red oak tie is about eight- years, and its initial cost is in the neighborhood of sixty cents.' The treated tie costing 85 cents complete will last from fifteen to twenty years. w The Green Spring plant has a capacity of 100,000 treated ties per month, working 24 hours a day. Its principal feature consists of two huge cylindrical retorts, each 132 feet long and seven feet In diameter. They are equipped with heating coils and perforated pipes, and are built of steel plates three-quarters of an inch thick with a working pressure of 175 pounds to the square inch. In these retorts is accomplished the actual work of tie preservation. The ties are loaded on steel tram cars, which are run into the retorts, in the bottom of which are laid permanent tracks of 30-inch gauge. Each retort will contain eight trams .bearing 325 ties. When placed and the. retorts sealed, the zinc-creosote solution at a temperature of 190 degrees is passed into the cylinders by gravity from two steel tanks with a holding capacity of 68,000 gallons each, through a teninch supply pipe. Centrifugal pumps are then set ig motion to keep the solution in & constant state of agitation in order to effect a uniform absorption by , proportion of each chemical by the timber. A gauge on the solution tank indicates when, the desired amount of absorption has been attained, which Is accomplished in about six hours. The solution remaining in the retorts

is then forced back into the supply tank by compressed air and the tramcars drawn, their places immediately being «taken by another train. When the ties have sufficiently cooled (which takes place very quickly), they are transferred from the trams to railroad cars and forwarded to sections on the line where needed.

Watching the Ties and Rails.