Right tool for cutting lots of railway sleepers?

I fancy having a go at something like this for our front yard:

I have a load of retaining walls in my back garden made from sleepers, I’ll be replacing these with blocks so the sleepers will be available.

What would be the best tool for cutting up the sleepers? Cricular saw from both sides? Sliding mitre saw also from both sides? I’m not sure how much life I will get from the blades given there will likely be all kinds of grit in the sleepers.

Chainsaw, with a file kit for keeping the chain sharp?

My current favourite option is a reciprocating saw?

From that list I only currently have a small circular saw with a blunt blade. I was planning on getting a decent mitre saw for a few other jobs anyway. But I have no problem buying a tool just for this job if needs be.

Wouldn’t want to drop your keys in that garden! The wood sounds dirty so chainsaw won’t stay sharp for long and wouldn’t be my choice. Can’t comment on the others sorry.

Can’t you just use full sleepers?
Cut up, the joints will fill with crap in no time and look bloody awful.

Sliding Chopsaw with a deep enough cut to get all the way through in one go. I cut a load of sleeper with one that didn’t go all the way through and the sleepers had to be flipped to complete the cut. Was a pain in the ass.

As iolo says, plus it’ll be wobbly to walk on unless the base is very good, and there’s no soft edges in the timber.

Having said that, my choice of saw would be the mitre since you can setup a stop block to keep the two cuts at the right length, and I’d budget for a new blade. You can also sharpen circular blades with a diamond file and jig.

I chopped up a few dozen fence posts with a Makita Skill saw, so similar I guess. Made pretty short work of them tbh. Would be hard work if you don’t have anyone to help though.

I think they’d be better laid as planks, perhaps with gaps filled with pebbles etc to hide the variation in heights. Then you can have ground hugging plants etc growing through and over.

I used about 50 softwood sleepers (new without any horrible creosote/iron pins etc) for a retaining wall and steps, electric chainsaw made short work of it but wasn’t that accurate getting exact lengths for visible joints.

Can’t you just use full sleepers?

You’d need to dig some deep holes 😀

I did a 12 month sub-contract job for Network Rail, working on the track replacement, I asked about getting hold of old sleepers for doing garden stuff, I was told by they were probably the worst thing you could use in your garden due to he impregnated creosote and all the crap from the rains themselves, this was ten years ago.

My current favourite option is a reciprocating saw?

just don’t! – they’re hopeless. Useful to an extent for demolition/ pruning etc. No use for cutting anything at all neatly or quickly.

One of the first jobs I did was helping build a public sculpture out of railway sleepers. The creosote just blunts everything we pointed at it and the thickness of the material, the rapidly blunting of the blade and the the damp and creosote in the cut grabbing the blade puts a huge load on the motors in tools and they burn out too. As well as any metal work that might be in the wood you can also have bits of gravel that have been pressed in – if you’ve been using them as retaining walls they’ll be wet through too. We used big circular saws to start with and when the tool hire co couldn’t replace any more of them we used a chain saw but the time lost to sharpening and replacing chains was a real drag. The the stuff we were doing was exacerbated by the cuts being long diagonals rather than straight across though

I chopped up a few dozen fence posts with a Makita Skill saw,

Theres around 200 cuts in your pic – so thats 400 going at it both sides with a circular saw 🙂

Someone else’s saw.

If they’re proper railway sleepers then I wouldn’t bother. As mentioned above, they’ve been soaked in all kinds of stuff which isn’t exactly ideal for plants (or people). In Switzerland, there are even categorized as hazardous waste and require special and very expensive disposal.

Of course you can also buy pseudo sleepers from garden centers and landscapers which are ok.

Looks awful IMO.

We’ve got old used railway sleepers as retaining walls and steps in our rented garden.They ooze tar in summer which gets everywhere and smell rank.AFAIK used sleepers arenot allowed to be used indoors or enlcosed spaces because of the fumes they give off.You can get untreated ones but they cost a fair bit more.

You need one of these:

DO NOT USE OLD SLEEPERS! I cannot stress this enough as stated earlier they are full of old diesel, poo, brake pad contaminants, very nasty creosote. It will leach out into your garden and poison it.

As above, depends on whether they are used sleepers or look-a-like sleepers. Used ones will trash anything, if reproduction, chainsaw is easiest for the size. Sold a 100 ton of wood for making sleepers, that stuff was soft enough that a bread knife will do.

@footflaps. I was about to say I’m sure festool has got a suitable product, that works perfectly but is about 3 time the price as any of the alternatives!

The alternative is made by Mafell and it costs 5 times more than the festool version !

Stihl recommends a chain with carbide teeth http://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/saw-chains/rd/%5B/url%5D

Not cheap, though!

Take them to a proper sawmill.

A proper sawmill will tell you where to go, or at least have you buy new blades for ones you trash putting crap wood and possible nails through.

DO NOT USE OLD SLEEPERS! I cannot stress this enough as stated earlier they are full of old diesel, poo, brake pad contaminants, very nasty creosote. It will leach out into your garden and poison it.

While that’s certainly true, if they’re going to be laid on a level bed of sand or fine gravel, as extra-deep paviours, then anything leaching out isn’t going to poison any existing plants. I’d have thought one of those saws they use for cutting paving slabs or kerb stones ought to cope with any crap embedded in the timber.
As sleepers are all pretty much a set size, cut into chunks across the width, then set into a levelled surface, they ought to be pretty level to walk on, with sand poured down between the blocks to fill in the gaps.
I’d be perfectly happy to have an area laid out like that, but I’d do it so it’s perfectly flat, and it wouldn’t be possible to lose things down any gaps!
Moss and other small plants would probably still colonise it, you see lots of things growing around the railbed of any disused or lightly used old railways.

I think that pic looks awful as well ,a right mess

Made the mistake of trying to chop a few with a chainsaw and the chain lasted three cuts. Those expensive tools will only cut fresh wood.

Poisoning the plants is ace though. Cuts down on the weeding…

“Right tool for cutting lots of railway sleepers?”

Why be so harsh on yourself?

I’d have thought one of those saws they use for cutting paving slabs or kerb stones ought to cope with any crap embedded in the timber.

They’d cope with the crap – just not the timber – the blades don’t have teeth

http://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/copr/creosote.htm

http://www.kilgraney.com/railway%20sleeper%20treatments.htm

Only one tool for the job

I favour the more portable hand held version

But yes, that patio looks shit and will be a delight in wet weather. Still, it makes burying the bodies a little easier.

You’d need to dig some deep holes [/quote] 😆 😆 😆

Certainly wouldn’t use sleepers for a patio, they are slippy as flip once damp.

Home

These guys make some fantastic stuff from railway sleepers!!

mpregnated creosote and all the crap from the rains themselves

really quite literally..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30541015

I regularly find myself gazing at a freshly deposited jobbie whilst waiting for the train to work 🙁

I feel qualified to comment here. Over the past 2 years I have used about 100 sleepers in my garden all of which were cut through at least twice. Creosote treated softwood ones are easiest to cut but they stink in summer, plus a lot of them leach tar out when they get warm, so not too practical for walking on and not good for plants. I used about 70 hardwood ones, which don’t have the treatment issues but weigh a bit more. I used a chainsaw for cutting and could usually get through 6-10 cuts before blunting the chain so I would keep 5 or 6 sharp chains spare so I could get a decent days work done.

Watch out for Jarah sleepers – they are a swine to cut. Wouldn’t it be easier to get new tanalised timbers from a saw mill cut to right length. Old railway sleepers do have a lot of nasty chemicals in / on them