If you are a train fan, or simply like the feeling of loneliness when the rails extend to the distance, you must have seen it: dark, oily, hard, lying under two shiny rails, and can't count.

It is the legendary anti-corrosion sleeper.

At the first sight, many people will think that the wood must be particularly "rigid". After all, they are crushed by train wheels every day, and they have to shoulder various environmental and climate changes.

But I want to tell you something cold: this piece of black wood looks like a diamond, but when you were young, it was actually a "soft and cute little fresh meat".

Who would have thought that the "tough guy" was made of pine?

In our impression, the wood that can support the big scene must be mahogany and ironwood, which are heavy like weights and can't be pulled with nail covers.

What are railway sleepers used for? Pine.

Yes, it's the kind of pine that you see in your daily life. It grows fast, produces a lot, and is a little soft when cut.

This is ridiculous. How can a "soft and cute pine tree" become a "tough guy on the track"?

Don't worry, this is just like an ordinary student. If you send it to a special training camp at the level of "Hengshui Middle School", you can also carry the flag. The "special training camp" for sleepers is the high-pressure oil tank that looks a bit scary.

In order to make it "hard", the engineer broke his heart

If ordinary pine wood is directly paved on the railway, it is simply a buffet for nature. When termites come, they have to shout "Happy New Year". Within a few years, the wood is full of holes.

So the engineers thought of a way: oil immersion.

This is not simply taking a brush to brush a layer of oil, which is too childish. If we want to play, we will play a big game.

Step 1: drying and scoring

Processed plain sleepers are naturally dried to remove excess water in the body. After that, the surface shall be nicked by professional equipment to prepare for subsequent oil immersion.

First, put the sleepers into a huge iron pot and drain the air and water inside. At this time, the wood was like a sponge that had been squeezed out of water. It was in a state of extreme "hunger and thirst", and he said to himself, "Give me something quickly, I can eat anything!"

Step 2: High pressure oil injection

The plain sleepers after scoring are transported to the anti-corrosion tank for oil immersion treatment under high temperature and pressure, and the huge pressure forces the anti-corrosion oil to connect to the depth of the wood. At ordinary times, the oil can only penetrate a little, but under high-pressure environment, the anti-corrosion oil can often penetrate more than 13 mm.

Immersion depth: This is the "golden bell cover" to ensure life

The sleepers on the railway rub against the stones every day, and the surface will be worn and cracked after a long time. If the preservative oil only exists on the surface, the surface will crack, and the fresh wood inside will be exposed. When the insect sees it, "Yo, tender meat!" it will immediately start to bite.

But when the immersion depth reaches 13 mm, the situation is different.

This means that even if the surface is weathered off a few millimeters, even if a crack is opened, and the depth is dug, it is still full of anti-corrosion oil. A worm bite, full of bitter oil, hot eyes, simply can not swallow; The fungus wanted to parasitize, and found that the wood was full of oil and could not breathe.

Small sleeper, great wisdom

From pine wood to antiseptic sleeper, this transformation is full of the flash of human wisdom. It does not need complex technology, but relies on carefully designed processes to make ordinary wood become the "eternal guard" of the railway line. So, don't underestimate these woods - their stories are more chewy than many online celebrities' card punching ground!