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.

I claim: 
     
         1 . An elongated tie for use as a cross tie for a rail bed, said elongated tie comprising
 a) at least one stack of laminated tire treads forming a body of said tie;   b) reinforcing means integrated into said at least one stack of laminated tire treads, said reinforcing means having a first portion providing increased compressive strength and a second portion providing increased torsional and bending stiffness to said rectangular tie.   
     
     
         2 . The elongated tie of  claim 1  wherein said at least one stack of laminated tire treads comprises at least two stacks of laminated tire treads. 
     
     
         3 . The elongated tie of  claim 2  wherein said reinforcing means includes a vertical member extending between said at least two stacks of laminated tire treads. 
     
     
         4 . The elongated tie of  claim 3  wherein said vertical member is made of a material selected from a group consisting of wood, conductive metals, non-conductive metals and composites. 
     
     
         5 . The elongated tie of  claim 3  wherein said vertical member extends between said at least two stacks in non-contacting relationship to provide electrical isolation. 
     
     
         6 . The elongated tie of  claim 5  wherein said non-contacting relationship forms a gap which is filled with a non-conducting material. 
     
     
         7 . The elongated tie of  claim 3  wherein a distal end of said vertical member is spaced from a lowermost element, said lowermost element forming a bottom surface of said elongated tie. 
     
     
         8 . The elongated tie  claim 3  wherein said reinforcing means further comprises at least one horizontally extending flange connected to said vertical member. 
     
     
         9 . The elongated tie of  claim 8  wherein said at least one reinforcing flange comprises at least two reinforcing flanges, one extending from each end of said vertical member. 
     
     
         10 . The elongated tie of  claim 9  further comprising an additional tire tread ply sandwiching each of said two reinforcing flanges between itself and at least one of said stacks of laminated tire treads. 
     
     
         11 . The elongated tie of  claim 9  wherein said reinforcing means comprises an I-beam with two pair of laterally extending flanges which has a one-half width stack of tire treads sandwiched between each pair of laterally extending flanges. 
     
     
         12 . The elongated tie of  claim 11  wherein a distal end of each flange of said I-beam has a transverse flange extending parallel to said vertical member. 
     
     
         13 . The elongated tie of  claim 11  wherein said I-beam has upper and lower box flanges which are each filled with tire treads. 
     
     
         14 . The elongated tie of  claim 11  wherein each flange of said I-beam has a group of cut-out portions to accommodate rail securing spikes. 
     
     
         15 . The elongated tie of  claim 9  wherein said reinforcing means comprises an I-beam having a hollow box spine. 
     
     
         16 . The elongated tie of  claim 8  wherein said at least one horizontally extending flange comprises a corrugated flange which extends in both directions from a top end of said vertical member. 
     
     
         17 . The elongated tie of  claim 5  wherein said laminated stacks of tire treads are made from recycled steel belted tires. 
     
     
         18 . The elongated tie of  claim 17  further comprising periodic gaps formed in a length of each laminate layer in said laminated stacks to ensure electrical isolation between a first supporting rail and a second parallel supporting rail. 
     
     
         19 . The elongated tie of  claim 1  further comprising threaded fasteners extending between multiple plies forming said stack of laminated tire treads to hold said plies together. 
     
     
         20 . The elongated tie of  claim 1  further comprising electronic sensor means and signaling means embedded in said at least one stack of laminated tire treads.