Kitchen Garden Forum

Given our allotments back on to three railway lines, we often find old railway sleepers chucked over the fence in the long grass in the abandoned area of the site following track work.

Are these OK to use for raised beds?

I know you can actually buy then second hand, but are they treated at all before re-sale?

Sleepers are coated in creosote, which I imagine could be quite poisonous.

Anybody have any ideas?

Google for Deadly railway sleepers and read the sales website rebuttal.

Creosote is carcinogenic but you'd need exposure to it.

Sleeers are more likely to put tar on your clothes than anything else.They don't weep creosote, just in selected places thicker tar in hot weather.

Why not line the insides with visqueen

You raise an interesting question Barry.

Railway sleepers along with telegraph/electricity poles will have undergone a ruping process of pressurising creosote into them to preserve the wood. Next time you pass a newish telephone pole on a hot day you will see the leakage oozing out. I still use creosote and have worked with it for decades and used with common sense it is an extremely effective wood preserver and would be interested if anyone could find evidence that using railway sleepers/telegraph poles etc for raised beds caused any harm. However, Creosote is a coal-tar product and is carcinogenic therefore if you have any concerns I think the best method would be to use the sleepers and line the insides as robo suggests.

Barney

We used them for raised beds on the allotment and lined the sides before we filled them. We also put untreated boards on the top edge to protect our clothes if anyone wanted to sit or lean against them after getting tar on our clothes. They are nice and sturdy and you can get a good height if you support the sides.

The site I mentioned sells special bolt/screws for fixing through a sleeper into another below it. Overlap alternate corners and screw each overlap.

Thanks for the feedback.

I have read that old oak sleepers don't retain creosote very well, anyway, so are safer than some would make out. I shall therefore be moving my sleepers to my new plot.