Railway Sleeper Designs

RAILWAY SLEEPERS – FAST TRACK TO GARDEN DESIGN

In recent years, wooden railway sleepers have become a popular addition to the modern garden. With a wide variety of possibilities for their use, including garden paths, retaining walls, and raised flower beds to name a few, it isn’t hard to see why their popularity has increased…

Railway sleepers are laid horizontally underneath the tracks to hold the railway lines in place at the correct spacing. Wooden railway sleepers are also comparatively cheaper than their steel, concrete and plastic alternatives, as well as being lighter. The average wooden railway sleeper weighs between 160 and 250 lbs., whereas an equivalent sleeper made of concrete can weigh as much as 800 lbs.! From this we can deduce that wooden railway sleepers are much quicker and easier to install and require little to no specialist equipment to maintain. This in turn makes them a much more cost-effective option.

In regard to using wooden sleepers in the garden, it is more about the way they look than their other properties (although cost effectiveness is always a consideration). There is a certain grand, rustic quality that wooden railway sleepers possess, which adds a certain unnamable but unmistakable element to the modern garden that currently has the nation captivated, with an increasing number of UK homeowners adding them to their gardens every day.

Treated or Untreated?

Wooden railway sleepers can usually be found in one of three conditions: untreated, pressure treated (“tanalised”) or coated with Creosote.

pressure treated (“tanalised”) railway sleepers are the most common. Not only are they aesthetically appealing, they upport a uperb contempoary look that ill give your garden a