Uses for old Railway Sleepers?

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Has anyone done fun things with old sleepers?

Only 10 days ago I de-chaired 55 sleepers (chairs and rail sent to a local preservation line) - only 14 were anywhere near decent, the rest I strapped into a bundle thinking their next use would be to keep someone warm and help raise the sea level a little.

Had a visit at the workshop this morning - them next door wanted to borrow a heavy tow chain to pull out a stuck 180 digger with their artic loader from a wet field up the road.
So I sorted them out a very heavy chain (2 man lift job) and encouraged them to take a couple of ex MOD 6m twin 25mm tow ropes (tanks for the use of) so they could keep their loader well back on firmer ground and pull from a distance.

A while later they came and asked if I could take a loader up to pull out their teleporter that they'd got stuck trying to pull out their loader that had gone around the front of their still stuck digger - where it was even wetter.

I went up the road to do a recce first and found the teleporter had just managed to extract itself but had to rush back to load the trucks the loader should have been loading, leaving the 180 digger and the loader both bogged - bellied out. The 180 had been unable to extract itself using the backactor.
What with the rain and everything wet and slippery it was beginning to look ominously like a job for them next door's D6H dozer and low loader - but with their dozer 12 miles away and their low loader driver standing in the field with me, I thought maybe worth a shot first with some basic tackle.

Came back, dug out 3 more tank tow ropes (just don't ask), a 30m reel of 20mm recovery rope, a snatch block, 6 shackles and that bundle of rough sleepers I just happened to have deemed unfit only 10 days ago, and set forth.

First was the 180 digger that I decided we'd need in tandem with my small loader (only one registered for the road) to tackle the 15t loader - we used the 180's backactor to lift each side to allow us to shove 2 sleepers under each rear wheel, then pulled from 10m away under a huge oak tree whose roots had sucked enough moisture out of the ground to allow good traction.

Then on to the bellied loader - ground all around looked ok but was treacherous - once through the grass top that's it until you meet Professor Otto Lidenbrock on his way back from the centre of the earth.
A stack of sleepers under the bucket allowed us to lift the front end high enough to get 4 sleepers, 2 wide, under each wheel and ramped down towards the rear wheels - nothing we could do to raise the back with the gear at our disposal.
Some more sleepers across the front in case it sank right back down again, then tow ropes from front chassis eyes to a snatch block under the bucket, and then laid the 30m rope through the snatch block running each side back onto slightly better ground so both machines could pull.

At this point the sun made a welcome appearance.

We used the little loader as an anchor initially, with the 180 digger's backactor arm alongside pulling the other end of the rope giving a 2-1 reduction through the snatch block.
Nice steady pull and the loader started to lift onto the sleepers, then it was fast forward with the anchor loader (the backactor then acting as anchor) to get the back end up without stopping.

We then used the 180 to dig out the sleepers and the little loader to dump then all on the huge bonfire in the field, and got covered in mud recovering the chains and rope.

The irony is that instead of doing all this, I was supposed to be loading up new 11x20 tyres from Green Goddess fire engines and some period U.S. rims to take down tomorrow for installation on the WW2 6x6 wrecker truck my friend is restoring for me - which, had that it not been delayed by a couple of months, could have been driven up the road toady, the winch rope run out and both recoveries completed in a matter of minutes without recourse to lugging slippery sleepers about or digging mud with hand shovels :rolleyes:

Oh well, we'll be prepared for next time even if the sleepers are no more.
That reminds me, I need to get some more sleepers - you can never have enough sleepers - or tank tow ropes for that matter :).

S1.jpeg
S2.jpeg
S3.jpeg
S34.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave,

Yes indeed, all good fun - a challenge and a much less stressful one when it isn't your own machine you're trying to dig out.
But I can't help feeling that a reasonable ability with the soldering iron might be a more useful skill in years to come!

No, not a DT - something with a little more style:

WLF.jpg
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Dropped a 40ft. trailer on a gradient in front of a factory loading bay only to discover that the parking brake obviously did not work for when I pulled the pin on the fifth wheel the trailer slid off and into the roller shutter, re- couple trailer, pull it forward and some kind factory worker drags a sleeper out and places it behind the trailer wheels...." we get used to that, 'appens all the time, look at the dents in our roller shutter". :rolleyes:

Col.
 
Top