In the early days, the sleepers used for the Alishan Mountain Railway were cut from broadleaved trees such as beech and Michelia compressa. But tough as these woods are, the sleepers only stood up to three to five years of logging trains rumbling over them, so there was no choice but to change them all for sleepers made of false cypress wood, which lasted for decades.
阿里山鐵路早期使用闊葉樹當枕木，但堅硬的櫸木、烏心石都撐不過運材車三、五年的轟隆去來，鐵道、橋樑枕木只好一律更新為檜木，才得以幾十年不壞。