Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1910 — CONCRETE TIES [ARTICLE]

CONCRETE TIES

Will Replace Wooden Ones on Queen and Crescent, Cincinnati Division. The Queen and Crescent will, in a short time, start the work of replacing all wooden ties on the Cincinati Division with those of re-enforced concrete. These ties were invented by B. M. Ballard. of Birmingham, Ala., and have tested with great success in the Alabama Great Southern Railroad yards in that city, as well as on the St. Louis terminal lines. The concrete ties are made in two sections with a bar of steel that holds the rails in place, giving the needed elasticity, as a rigid track would jar rolling stock to pieces. The rails are attached to steel bars, countersuflk. and do the ne-

cessity of spikes to hold them in place. Railroads are now facing a famine in ties of wood, and the Queen and Crescent, realizing the necessity of securing a substitute for wood, decided upon the concrete ties.