To save you going to Facebook:
We are giving away junk railroad ties. Please contact sam@sftm.org subject "SFTM Ties" for details. Not suitable for building or vegetable gardens.
These barely qualify as ties, if they are too shot for our operation, they aren't good for any railroad.

Not sure of the Mass DEP laws, but here in CT all Creosoted ties must go to an approved usage or dumping site. General public cannot buy Creosote treated ties.

At the Ct Eastern RR Museum we found this out when we were trying to get a donation of ties from a company that was removing their in plant trackage, so we now have an official document from Ct DEP saying we can take in used ties for use on the museum property.

FYI: According to the company, they decided to not go the donation route because they were told by their lawyers that any claims on improper disposal later can chase backwards through chain of ownership and could make claims against them even if they properly donated them to us for usage, if we later disposed of them improperly. So about 1 mile of practically new ties were sent to either Maine or Pennsylvania for disposal (probably burnt). Whereas they could have either donated them to us or sold them to a railroad material supply company about 1.5hr truck drive away.

Not sure if it was legally true or just a matter of corporate CYA. To make it even more confusing, last I heard you can buy used creosote ties at Home Depot in Rhode Island.

So you might want to double check the situation with DEP before you sell them to the family wanting to elevate the beds of their veggy garden.

Rich C.