railway sleepers

WestonDave

Depending on their age they could contain all kinds of potential nasties - originally creosote was used to prevent rot and that contains a number of chemicals associated with cancer to greater or lesser degrees. They could have diesel fuel on them and in addition its not that long ago that they stopped carriage toilets discharging onto the track! I'm not aware of any question about plants growing near them but you may want to consider whether any chemicals that leach from them into the soil may affect your desire to eat things grown near them - obviously its possible to take these things too far and you need to consider how old the sleepers are, how long since they were last used, how long they've been outside getting washed by rain etc.

That said there is a relatively easy solution and that is to line the inside of the structure with pond liner (you only need to line the sides formed by the sleepers - not the base) which will prevent the soil coming into contact with the sleepers. That way chemicals from the sleepers shouldn't get into your food!

1jim

Have a read through this, info from a site that sells railway sleepers (new untreated and used/treated) http://www.railwaysleeper.com/railway%20sleeper%20treatments.htm

arkonite_babe

As we have older threads on railway sleepers, I've added them together.

Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up