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A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade , hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct ...
A tie plate, baseplate or sole plate is a steel plate for centering and reinforcing the attachment point on the rail tracks between a flanged T rail and a railroad tie. The tie plate increases bearing area and holds the rail to correct gauge. It is fastened to wooden ties by means of spikes or bolts through holes in the plate.
Axe ties are railway ties (or sleeper) [1] that are hewn by hand, usually with a broadaxe.There are 2,900 ties per mile of track on a first class railroad. [clarification needed] The early railways would not accept ties cut with a saw, as it was claimed that the kerf of the saw splintered the fibres of the wood, leaving them more likely to soak up moisture causing premature rot.
Cast iron rails, 4 feet (1.2 m) long, began to be used in the 1790s and by 1820, 15-foot-long (4.6 m) wrought iron rails were in use. The first steel rails were made in 1857 and standard rail lengths increased over time from 30 to 60 feet (9.1–18.3 m). Rails were typically specified by units of weight per linear length and these also increased.
A railway track (CwthE and UIC terminology) or railroad track (NAmE), also known as permanent way (CwthE) [1] or "P Way" (BrE [2] and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers (railroad ties in American English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade.
The traditional form of grooved rail is the girder guard section illustrated to the left. This rail is a modified form of flanged rail and requires a special mounting for weight transfer and gauge stabilisation. If the weight is carried by the roadway subsurface, steel ties are needed at regular intervals to maintain the gauge.
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Tie hackers used a crosssaw and a broadaxe to hand hew railroad ties until they were phased out by sawmills by the early 1940s. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The advent of steam power and then gasoline engines allowed sawmills to operate efficiently and on site as needed making tie hacking obsolete over time.