Railway Sleepers
 

Now this thread is so sad I can't find anywhere else to put it. :p

I was recently at a preserved railway line in the South (no names) and I was looking at their new track that was in use for passenger trains, and guessed that their sleeper spacing had been stretched to at least 3' apart. It looked a bit odd.

What, I wondered, is the "correct" or standard sleeper spacing? Does it depend on rail weight, line speed, degree of curvature of the track, etc

I have just spent an hour on google and know a lot about garden design with second hand railway sleepers, but nothing about track design. I have tried search words such as sleepers and ties, track and permanent way but cant find a clue other than a hint that timber sleepers could be 2' apart.

On the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway we have a spacer for use when laying out sleepers to relay track. 2' seems about right but I can measure it for you next time I am at Wirksworth.

Incidently The EVR's new website was launched today at www.e-v-r.com

tell me about garden design....had a long and tedious argeument with the landscaper and wife about laying the sleepers flat...ie the proper way....I lost...:mad: (i wante bits of steel bolted to them.....

The four old ones (ex EVR) I have in my garden I have planted on edge and dug them in so that they are held together.

Should be about 26 to 28 sleepers to 60 ft of rail if bullhead,about 28 if flatbottom rails.
Only thing that will change that is line speed.
hope that helps
All the best,Ian.

Surely axle load is the determining factor. Some American lines are down to
16" now to carry 35 ton axle loads.

For determinig railway sleeper spacing one of the factor is Axle load.
ALong with this we have to take into account the dynamic load thats going to come on sleeper, Type of Sleepers etc
In Indian Railways Sleeper spacing for PSC sleepers on Broad Gauge is kept 60 cm for 52/60 kg rails

I've noticed when walking along the sleepers the spaces between sleepers is not always uniform. Thinking back I think the space between sleepers was about 2 feet average.

Mainline wooden sleepers on the Rhodesian Railways were set 2 foot apart. Concrete sleepers were about 18 inches apart. Steel sleepers were used where there was a problem with termites eating the wooden sleepers, other wise steel was only used in shunting yard and spurs.

Whilst I was travelling to Liverpool recently I noticed piles and piles of steel sleepers in a lineside yard between Stafford and Crewe - does anyone know where these are used, is it in freight sidings as suggested on this thread?