Railroad “sleepers” are usually called “ties” in the U.S., though the English word was long familiar.
[1802. In an advertisement for the building of a bridge over the Loyalhannah, the bidders are notified to furnish “the dimensions of their sleepers, planking, &c.”—Farmers’ Register, Greensburg, Pa., April 3.]
[1818. We are informed that the old piers [of the Springfield Bridge] remain, that the planks and sleepers were saved.—Boston Weekly Messenger, March 12.]
[1852. His camp he had before fortified; and now the planks were taken from the bridge over the creek, the sleepers greased and fortified by a tete-de-pont; and then going familiarly among his men, the Colonel prepared them for a bloody and desperate struggle.—C. H. Wiley, ‘Life in the South,’ p. 132.]
[1852.
| Eager politician, | |
| Closing up his peepers, | |
| Runs off in a train | |
| Laid on heavy sleepers. | |
‘The Rhyme of the Dépôt,’ vi., Knick. Mag., xl. 315 (Oct.).] (Italics in the original.) |
[1856. There was quite a quantity of wheat that lodged on the beams or sleepers, and this was excellent wheat, but there was considerable dirt with it.—Orson Hyde at the Mormon Tabernacle: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ iv. 213.]
1862. The valley of the Kansas river … is supplied with timber unsurpassed in the West. This timber would furnish all the necessary cross-ties, trestle-work, &c.—Mr. W. M. Dunn of Indiana, House of Repr., April 17: Cong. Globe, p. 1702/1.
