The Enduring Tradition Of Recycling Railway Rails And Rail Ties

Recycling used rail ties and railroad rails began as a salvaging and recycling "given"

long before going "green" with recycling revived in popularity in the most recent decades. One currently functional railroad rail recycling company started operations in 1959 when its 19-year-old founder, Kern Schumacher, heard about thousands of railroad ties about to be removed from the Oakland Bay Bridge. Kern obtained the help of a salvage specialist and the two of them were soon co-owners of the largest supply of used rail ties in the nation.

Businesses like Kern's have probably been around since railroads have been functioning-or soon thereafter. Maybe some railroad company laid track into a thriving mining town, only to watch the community turn into a ghost town. What next? Along comes a person with an aversion to waste and an eye to the recycling opportunity. But to what new uses could these railway rails and rail ties be put?

Used railway rails and used rail ties still in excellent shape have historically been-as they still are today-reused in the creation of brand new railway lines. Used rail ties have often been used to build houses and to build cribbing for boathouses and docks. Used wooden rail ties, in recent times, have become very popular as landscaping and gardening material-for retaining walls, decks, raised-bed gardens, staircases and steps, stepping "stones," walkways, flower boxes, and borders-and for corrals, chutes, and fences. These used rail ties are also highly utilized in creating art and furniture.

In recent times there has been an increase of concern over potential health issues because of the wood preservatives that are still present in the used rail ties, namely coal tar, creosote, or salts of heavy metals. Some jurisdictions in the world have gone so far as to prohibit the use of chemically treated rail ties when there might be regular contact with human food or skin. Companies that sell used rail ties typically grade them according to their retention of preservatives, marking the ones with higher levels of preservatives as appropriate for reuse in laying new railway lines, and the ones with low levels of preservatives as most appropriate for landscaping.

Some railroad materials salvage businesses regularly travel the world to purchase and recover as much railroad track as they can. This increasingly garners appreciation from our increasingly recycling-conscious society. Railway companies, as well, appreciate the ability to recoup their investments when they need to relocate miles and miles of railway line. Salvage companies sometimes have very specialized railway equipment that permits the dismantling and relocation of railroad ties and rails from challenging routes through tunnels, over bridges, around curves, and up grades. It's satisfying to know that in our increasingly "throw-away" society, there's been at least one long-lived industry that started-and stayed-recycling minded.

by: Leanna Rae Scott

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