Surely the answer is just hire the right tool for the job unless your strapped for cash and give you’ve got new sleepers I suspect not.
My mates are terrible for doing jobs with not quite the right tool and half arsing it and I can’t do that – especially when you will keep seeing it all the time.
Call around your local hire shops and see if they have the right tool.
I have 30+ (lethal?) Old railway sleepers and I stalled around 80 ten years ago with a chainsaw and despite that the plants, pets, kids, clothes and I still survive…
James