What are fossil tracks and how are they made?

What are railroad tracks made of?

• i am oing a science project and am having some trouble the question is what rocks, minerals, or other non renewable resources are found in railroads any help is apreciated i have ...show more

• Answer:

  Most of the materials that make up the railway can be recycled, such as the steel from the rails themselves. The ballast (rocks between the ties) appear to be granite. I'm not sure if it is reused as most of the ballast that goes down appears to be clean and, therefore, likely to be brand new. I guess it could be recycled but I'm not sure if it actually is. However, it is reused over and over in the sense that it doesn't ever really seem to leave the site except when there is a major programme of track re-laying. It just gets re-packed over and over. The ties (sleepers in UK parlance) are slightly more tricky as they can be made from either wood, metal or cast in concrete. Wood and metal ties could be sourced from sustainable sources if the authority was so minded, but concrete is more problematic. Pretty much all you can do with these once they are expired is to pulverise them and use the resulting crushed concrete on building sites as foundation material. I hope this helps.