Rubber concrete (RC) has been confirmed to be suitable for concrete sleeper production. This paper studies the cracking behaviour of conventional and rubber-reinforced concrete sleepers based on the results of an experimental program. The cracking behaviour in the pure bending zone was analysed up to a load of 140 kN. The crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) was accordingly measured using a digital image correlation (DIC) method. The DIC results show that the rubber prestressed concrete sleeper (RPCS) has a resistance against crack initiation that is 20% greater than that of the conventional prestressed concrete sleeper (CPCS) under the same loading condition; however, due to the higher crack growth rate of the RPCS, the first crack detected by the operator forms at 60 kN, which corresponds to a strength approximately 9% lower compared with the 65 kN load at which the first crack is detected in the CPCS. Before the first crack (60 kN), the RPCS has a deflection 35% lower than that of the CPCS, but after cracking, at loads of 80 kN, 100 kN and 140 kN, the RPCS has a deflection 15%, 4% and 24% higher than that of the CPCS, respectively.