Tire tread railroad tie

Abstract

Re-cycled tire treads are laminated into stacks and attached to a reinforcement element which has a first portion which provides increased compressive strength and a second portion which provides increased torsional and bending strength. Several embodiments with reinforcing elements ranging from T-bars, to I-beams to box beams, with variations including corrugated flanges. Pre-drilled holes can be provided in the flanges to facilitate insertion of the spikes. While steel-belted tires are preferred for use in creating stacks, provisions are made to ensure electrical isolation of the two rails to permit transmission of data thereby. The railroad tie can have electronic signaling hardware built-in by placing sensors and related circuitry between adjacent plies in a laminated stack.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.