CONCRETE SLEEPERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 34, 27 March 1942, Page 3

CONCRETE SLEEPERS

BEING MADE BY WOMEN FOR BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS

Concrete sleepers arc being tried out toi replace some of the 3,000,000 timber sleepers which railways in Great Britain need each year to maintain their tracks in good condition. Usually, these timber sleepers arc bought from the Balic and Scandinavian countries, Canada and Australia. Experiments with concrete sleepers were made as long as: 25 .years ago, and, have been continued at intervals without very satisfactory results. Now, with many sources of timber supplies closed by the war. and the need to save shipping space, concrete sleepers arc being tried out again. Generally the use of concrete sleepers is being confined to sidings, marshalling j r ards and branch lines —places where high speeds are not required. One companj', however, is shortly to make tests on a section of main line. Because full length concrete sleepers have been found tci develop defects under traffic, attention has recently been turned to pairs of concrete blocks, either "tied" together to keep the gauge correct, or interspersed with wooden sleepers. One railway is using 35,000 pairs of such blocks, and by the beginning of next year the output will be at the rate or 70,000 pairs a year. In some centres women arc employed "on making the blocks.