The birth and growth of railways are built on foundations of wooden crossties. Three thousand ties to each mile of track are pressed, pounded and squeezed by North America’s railways. The qualities of the wooden crosstie withstand enormous wheel loadings of 286,000 pound locomotives and loaded railcars. Wood represents 96% of all materials used today to satisfy the maintenance demand of 20 million ties each year.
The life of the wooden crosstie, left untreated in the mid 1800’s, was five to seven years. Twenty-five thousand tie hackers broad axed up to 15 ties each day. To-day’s modern treatment process and improved railbed drainage have extended tie life to 30 years and beyond. Creosote was introduced in 1920, derived from the coal coking process. Creosote is naturally bio-degradable and does not pose a significant environmental risk in the railway application, according to the Railway Tie Association.
In British Columbia, the Ashcroft Treating Plant, a Division of Riverside Forest Products Limited, processes and treats 600,000 ties and 1.4 million board feet of bridge timber, switch ties, poles and pilings each year. Nestled in a bend of the Thompson River east of Ashcroft, rows and rows of material is stacked-dried for up to one year in the near perfect hot and dry climate. Wood species include Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Ponderosa Pine and mixed hardwoods. Much of the hardwoods come from Malaysia. Seasoned timber is cut to length, bored for spike placement and incised to improve preservative absorption. 1,296 prepared ties are placed in huge pressure cookers which are then filled with heavy bunker oil and creosote. The cookers are brought up to temperature and pressures up to 150 psi. The duration of the process depends on the wood species.
The resulting black wooden crossties are shipped throughout North America by rail and road. Ashcroft Treating is situated next to Canadian Pacific’s mainline, one of it’s largest customers. The finished products will meet or exceed national and international standards, truly a Black Tie Affair, right here in British Columbia.
