Posted by: Bob Q. on March 01, 2000 at 17:39:29

In Reply to: Railroad Tie Retaining Wall Posted by: Ty on March 01, 2000 at 11:54:53

Need to install retaining wall, (24'x30"), would like to use railroad ties. Any suggestions on best way to install?

Answer:
They should be staggered like if you were laying brick. If this retaining wall is for support rather than just appearance. One thought is to drill holes to align top to bottom then to drive a hefty peice of pipe or rebar down with several feet in the ground beneath. I suppose you could bolt the ties together as you build the wall; but I don't imagine that would be as strong as having a solid support from top to bottem and into the ground under. Hope this is of some assistance.

Ty's got the right idea with the pins and bolts; but you'd better be prepared for some arm busting drilling. Creosoted ties are killers. I used to work for a railroad here in the northeast on a bridge and building gang. We used to build a lot of retaining walls and cribbing. This is an idea, but it's a lot of work you may not be prepared to do. We used what we called "dead men". Lets say you get the first two tiers down and you are tieing them in with pins and staggering them like bricks. You start the third tier with a full length one. At the end of that tie, you dig a trench into the bank the length of a tie. You lay the tie into the bank with the other end sitting flush on top of the tier next to the first one you put down. You drive a long rod through the end in the bank and the other end on top of the tier. If you had a few of these in the wall, the wall will never be pushed out. Of course, we had backhoes and air drills to do the work, but I just wanted you to know a way of building a retaining wall that will never fall over.

You can also cable into a bank instead of using ties. Almost as much work though.