SteveB wrote:
How much does a railroad tie weigh? We are thinking of using some for a
landscaping project but are wondering how difficult they might be to
handle.

Perce

It varies with the wood. Some were made intentionally for railroad use, and
some were made intentionally for landscape design.

The ones on the railroads I would estimate at close to 200# each, and
landscapers at up to half that weight.

But even for those which are actual r-r ties they can be different.
There are two groups in the batch I have, both of which are used ties
("used" as in having been rail ties)--one is white oak, the others are
yellow pine. Needless to say, there's a difference in average weight
between the two groups owing to the density difference of the two wood
species. Within that, there are still pine ones that weigh more than
some of the lighter oak ones.

When in TN, I spent quite some time at a small one-man sawmill in order
to get good deal from the old codger on hardwood that came in hit-n-miss
where his prime business was ties for the N&W or mine timbers. These
were mostly oak w/ black locust also used when it was brought in by the
loggers. OTOH, farther south and west where there were few if any
hardwoods, SYP was common and in the west firs and other coniferous
were/are the most likely to be found.

--