First, many, if not most, RR ties that you find in Texas are yellow pine.
The creosoting penetrates all the way through the wood.
If you look around at power line poles (telephone poles) you will find they have a 'birthmark' branded in them with a branding iron that tells the month(?) and year they were made. You will see that many of them are a lot older than 50 years.
Termites will not touch a creosote pole, in fact, that is a real plus. You will never get termites because they will not even climb a creosote pole.
Lastly, somebody said that water will rot them. Don't tell the folks on the gulf coast that. They have been using creosote posts for 100 years for pier pilings. I have seen some of the that were pulled out after many years because of some type of damage like a boat hitting them and the section below the waterline looks like the day it left the creosote plant. Again, look at power poles that have been in for 50 years or more, you won't find any rot or damage caused by the environment (only damage will be that caused by drunken drivers).
Untreated wood that is under water will last for many years. It is not the water that does the damage. Any damage will be in the part where it is subjected to wet/dry cycle right at the point it goes into the ground. As a former Licensed Texas Real Estate Inspector I saw a lot of treated poles that were used for foundations on the coast and a lot of them were damaged at the ground line.
Creosote posts will probably last 5 to 10 times as long as treated posts.
Finally, would the railroad run 300,000 pound railroad engines
Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive 2479 - Facts over a piece of wood that was going to rot out in a few years?
For those who mentioned building on concrete pads: In Texas there are many areas where the ground is referred to as "black gumbo". It has a high plasticity factor (swells when wet, shrinks when dry) that causes a lot of foundation problems. A pier and beam house will hold up very well in that type of soil.
Cracked concrete slabs are a big problem on those areas. If you get a cracked slab you may pay thousands of dollars to have it repaired. With pier and beam you crawl under the house with a 2 ton bottle jack and some shims and level it up yourself.
Bill Tolle