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Railway Sleepers


Dick Smith
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You might get old sleepers direct from SNCF, try a yard where PW works is done, generally old sleepers are no longer used in gardens because the deep sprayed creosote in them leeches into the ground and kills off plant life.  That is why you can generally only now get unused ie untreated sleepers.
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We got half a dozen some years back in our local Point Vert. Now I see a lot of the proper builder's merchants are selling them. I would never use them though anywhere near anything edible due to the amount of carburants that has soaked into them and other treatments over their life on the railways.
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I would definatly follow Rons advice and check out your local SNCF ....they might just be glad to get rid of them .....I can only speak of Network Rail who used to sell off theirs ...or burn them ..Reading triangular sidings site was the place for burning hundreds !

SNCF  must be the same the track laid today comes in made up sections with concrete sleeepers attached and laid by a rial lift track layer  machine . Sidings /marshelling yards  tend to still  have the wooden sleepers ...you may find them  stacked up round sidings  from where they have been replaced by modern track....I would call in and  chat up the  SNCF staff ...they will know where the old wooden ones end up .

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What price are these things going for ?  At our local SNCF station there is a mountain of them - it really is huge !  I'd love to get may hands on a trailer load or 5 as they are so useful and have a beauty all of their own that can't be matched with some new made version.  The tar etc leached into their structure is essential for a long life.  Forget new ones made specifically for gardening purposes, you'll be lucky to get 10 years out of them.

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I pay €8 each but they are only available by the van load on a certain night shift once a month when a certain "mec" is working (or not in reality!), you have to be very discreet and leave by a prearranged circuitous route, they were not at all impressed by my farmer friend who arrived with his tractor and trailer.

I have also found that no matter who I take with me they are usually not strong enough to help me to manhandle a whole van load in the 15 minutes allowed.

The pre-negotiations are very delicate and take lots of time, anyone would think that I was trying to infiltrate the mafia [:)]

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............and even that is maybe not the worst.  Unlike the UK, SNCF/RFF treat all active track at least once per year using the weedkiller train.  Over the years a number of the effective treatments have changed due to them having to be withdrawn from the market on safety grounds. 

 

At least poo is biodegradable.

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[quote user="Dick Smith"]Does anyone know of any sources of railway sleepers for hard landscaping - Normandy/south Brittany? Some idea of delivery costs would be useful.

Or is other timber just as useful for edging gravelled areas, building raised beds and so forth?

MTIA
[/quote]

 hi Dick

 this help   http://www.leboncoin.fr/li?q=traverse+de+chemin+de+fer&ca=6_s&th=1&c=0&w=2&rs=&re=&ms=&me=&ros=&roe=&ss=&se=&ccs=&cce=&cs=&ce=&zz=ex%3A75001&fu=

 Dave

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