Frozen Train Tracks? Set 'Em on Fire (theatlantic.com) 116
It might look dangerous, but flames have kept switches moving and rails intact for a century. From a report: As if the horrors of the polar vortex were not already enough -- temperatures that look like typos, Canada Goose robbers, and something called frost quakes -- the nation's railroad system took a turn for the apocalyptic this week, too. Rails broke in three different places between Baltimore and Washington on Thursday, causing severe delays. Amtrak canceled dozens of trains passing through Chicago, and viral videos appeared to show commuter tracks in the city on fire. Of course, the tracks themselves were not burning -- they are made out of steel, prized for its tendency to rarely go up in flames. But the sight is still dramatic. The videos of the fires in Chicago last week show flames smoldering in patches of melted snow around the tracks.
Fires have been employed on railroads -- and remained the preferred fix for many a winter hazard -- for most of their roughly two-century history. While railroads have developed impressive tools for dealing with snow on the tracks, extreme temperatures remain a challenge. Though steel is flame-resistant, it's subject to cold, which can jam up railroads' many moving parts. When cold weather does wreak havoc on railroads, lighting fires on train tracks can serve a couple of uses. One is to thaw the switches that determine which track a train goes down, which is what Metra, the Chicagoland commuter-rail authority, said was going on this week. Switches are moving parts, and if ice gets into them, they can freeze in place. There are various types of switch heaters, which might use electric current or gas to melt ice -- or even an open gas flame, which is what's appearing in the Metra videos. Where there aren't switch heaters, crews might use temporary torchlike devices with a flame, the railroad equivalent of the smudge pots farmers use to keep citrus groves and apple orchards from freezing on cold nights.
Fires have been employed on railroads -- and remained the preferred fix for many a winter hazard -- for most of their roughly two-century history. While railroads have developed impressive tools for dealing with snow on the tracks, extreme temperatures remain a challenge. Though steel is flame-resistant, it's subject to cold, which can jam up railroads' many moving parts. When cold weather does wreak havoc on railroads, lighting fires on train tracks can serve a couple of uses. One is to thaw the switches that determine which track a train goes down, which is what Metra, the Chicagoland commuter-rail authority, said was going on this week. Switches are moving parts, and if ice gets into them, they can freeze in place. There are various types of switch heaters, which might use electric current or gas to melt ice -- or even an open gas flame, which is what's appearing in the Metra videos. Where there aren't switch heaters, crews might use temporary torchlike devices with a flame, the railroad equivalent of the smudge pots farmers use to keep citrus groves and apple orchards from freezing on cold nights.
Rail Co. follow standard procedure news at 11 (Score:3)
So lighting the tracks on fire, is a standard way of solving frozen tracks... While we all love to see fire, and it often an interments of destruction, a controlled fire, has its benefits too.
Did you also know fire fighters who are trying to stop forest fires from spreading, may actually control burn parts of the forest, to isolate it from spreading?
So fire melts Ice, or is this a conspiracy from big fire companies, who have been manipulating mankind for the last 2 million years.
Re: (Score:2)
Need a talking head accompaniment as an excuse to "informationally" amuse the surface dwellers with pictures. Their facetweets will have the conspiracy discussions later.
Good thing they didn't use jet fuel... (Score:2)
Steel beams and all...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In case you couldn't tell, I'm being sarcastic. The OP probably was as well.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Until you realize they went cheap on construction hiring nonunion workers and cut every corner they could find. Then it all makes more sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Good thing they didn't use jet fuel... (Score:5, Interesting)
You can easily see the effect of normal fuel from the gas station if you look at the wrecks of burned out cars: In most cases, the frame of the car has sunken in under its own weight. Imagine the same steel frame with the weight of dozens of floors on top of it!
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes to all this! And by the way, they did use jet fuel on the tracks.... aka: kerosene.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You know that one of the most common ways of shaping steel is heating so it is more malleable. It also causes steel to expand. In this case the expansion of the steel rails is what is being done to keep the joints from pulling apart. Since this is done in a controlled fashion they know not to heat the rails to the point they would deform much, just enough to get them back to their usual length. So while jet fuel(aka kerosene) isn't hot enough to melt steel, it is hot enough to cause steel to expand and
This Youtube video. Seriously. (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
No matter how dense you are, this is /thread.
Deja vu (Score:3, Interesting)
Asked for it (Score:1)
Speaking as an Atlanta native, we are well aware that Northerners have plenty of experience heating up railroad tracks.
Yeah maybe you'll think about not owning slaves sooner next time and then you could get over a bitch slap that happened 150 years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Speaking as an Atlanta native, we are well aware that Northerners have plenty of experience heating up railroad tracks.
Yeah maybe you'll think about not owning slaves sooner next time and then you could get over a bitch slap that happened 150 years ago.
Eh, my family most likely never owned slaves. Father's side comes from NE TN which was predominately Unionist, mother's side comes from Chicago (although supposedly at one time they were merchants in the Caribbean-what type of trade they were in is up for conjecture).
Re: (Score:2)
Eh, my family most likely never owned slaves.
Yet you still manage to be salty about some bent railroad ties resulting from losing the war that the South started over an unforgivable practice of slavery.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Eh, my family most likely never owned slaves.
Yet you still manage to be salty about some bent railroad ties resulting from losing the war that the South started over an unforgivable practice of slavery.
Who says I was salty? I was merely making a tongue in cheek reference to Sherman and the March. However, I am of the camp that argues that boiling down the cause of the Civil War to slavery is a gross simplification. While it may have been about slavery and profits for the landowners and aristocracy behind secession, for the majority of the men behind the guns, it was about the perception (fueled by the pro-secessionist political/economic forces) that outsiders were going to come in and take away or chan
Re: (Score:2)
Your "way of life" argument is a self-deception. Your claim is that the northerners had no right to dictate that the south cannot have slaves, but simultaneously that southerners should be able to dictate that the US government is responsible for upholding the south's slave laws, effectively extending those laws outside the south. I would completely agree that current alt-right and white nationalist movements also are blind to the fact that their ideology is founded on an essential hypocrisy like this.
Re: Asked for it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Northerners wanted wage slaves (Score:2)
I dont have a dog in this fight. i am neither black nor white and recent immigrant to US but the Northerners were not fighting out of the pureness of their hearts. The northern economy was based on manufacturing for which they needed cheap factory labor. One large available source was freed slaves. hence they wanted to abolish slavery to give a boost to their manufacturing. At the same time they wanted high tariffs to protect their factories from European imports. The Southern economy was on the other hand
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Your bigotry is priceless in this context.
This kind of bigotry is not a reference to the slavery of 150 years ago or the race relations of 60 years, but butthurt over the South switching from Democrat to Republican circa 1980. Certain people have been wanting to restart the Civil War ever since.
Re: (Score:3)
You do, of course, realize that destroying the tracks was merely an act of genocide. It was a deliberate, malicious act to destroy the economy in order to weaken the southern culture *after the war*.
If a state at war is not trying to destroy it's enemy's ability to make war, that state is ineptly led and most likely destined to lose the war. Atlanta and it's railroads were a valid military target. If you want to blame anyone for the state of the South after the war, blame Booth. He's the idiot that killed Lincoln and let the hardliners take control of Reconstruction.
Re: (Score:2)
So you view the south as occupied territories, not a part of the union?
While the war was ongoing, yes, they were occupied territory. They had a functioning government, territorial integrity, (relatively) functional currency, and diplomatic representation. They were literally one victory away from receiving international recognition as an independent state. After surrender and reintegration into the union, they once again became US territory. Just as the original 13 colonies were occupied territory for the areas held by the British during the Revolution.
Re: (Score:2)
If a state at war is not trying to destroy it's enemy's ability to make war, that state is ineptly led
Or they've read their Clauswitz and understand that the objective of war has fuck all to do with winning the war.
Re: Deja vu (Score:1)
....Sherman's March something something...
moving on.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Be like Bill Gates, his miles long driveway is a heated, ice/snow free one.
Good idea. I will become a billionaire. Why hadn't I thought of that before? Now, if each of you can give me a few hundred thousand $$$$, I will achieve my aim.
Really here too? (Score:1)
Not Newsworthy (Score:3)
It's like saying a storm is bad because lightning hit the Sears Tower. [stormhighway.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Not every news article needs to be some mind blowing revelation of international interest to nerds. Some news articles can just contain new stuff. Today I learnt 2 things, in America they use fire to keep tracks from freezing, and that there's a picture floating around of lightning striking all three towers in Chicago.
All in all, happy I read it on Slashdot, and happy I read it in the comments too. If only we could have more of this rather than yet another Red vs Blue political debate.
Re: (Score:2)
Today I learnt 2 things, in America they use fire to keep tracks from freezing, and that there's a picture floating around of lightning striking all three towers in Chicago.
Not all tracks are set on fire to prevent freezing. There are a few spots in Chicago that are more prone to freezing than other locations.
It's always nice to learn new things!
It's just Winter (Score:2)
"Polar vortex" what-ever.
That weather is just called "winter".
The fact that you've so much lost the habit of it that some occasionnal slight return to older typical warther is suddenly newsworthy is more a sign of how awful the climate change has become !
Now insert some grumbling about up-hill in the snow both ways and about lawns.
Re: (Score:2)
This has always been typical weather, it's actually a pretty mild winter right now. The problem is a 24h news cycle that needs a distraction from the real issues at hand, both for the left and the right, for all branches of government across all countries.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Lawns? Lawns ! .. luxury .. when I were lad we had only had dirt
Re:It's just Winter (Score:4, Funny)
Dirt! If only we had dirt! When I was a kid, all we had was gravel! And it was cold!
Re: (Score:3)
Dirt! If only we had dirt! When I was a kid, all we had was gravel! And it was cold!
Gravel? I wish we had gravel, all we had were the ground up bones of our ancestors! And they were still decomposing!
Re: (Score:2)
Um, no. -50 in Chicago is news. Coldest weather in all time for those days, coldest in many decades overall.
https://chicago.curbed.com/201... [curbed.com]
Re: (Score:2)
-23 apparently, the record is -27.
I guess by -50 you meant with windchill? Silly made up numbers. In places where it actually gets cold they give the figure in "minutes until exposed flesh freezes".
Maybe Snowpiercer IS realistic!! (Score:2)
Seasonal Amnesia (Score:2)
It seems people are now forgetting that it gets cold in the winter.
Those in Chicago especially. It's also bad in New England where they make excuses for their lack of budget for snow removal. "It never gets this bad."
Yes it does, people just seem to blot out the bad in favor of those nice hot and humid summers.
Using gas jets to keep track switches from bindings isn't something new.
Going to work, seeing your tracks on fire (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I've had jobs that seemed like that every day.
I've had toilet visits like that.
Nothing New Here (Score:2)
Chicago Born and Raised. Seeing tracks on fire during the winter is pretty common. I honestly thought this was common practice.
Re: (Score:2)
It was pretty spooky the first time I saw it. This was on the UP and after dark. Just outside Oglvie there are a *lot* of turnouts and they are all heated with crude gas sparges. The windows are tinted so it is hard to see anything in the dark. All I could see was a bunch of flames dancing at ground level. I did a double-take until I figured out what it was.
I think they could get more efficient results with proper burners and temperature control, but that would also involve more parts to fail. I'm guessing
Gas heating is not optimal (Score:2)
The Dutch rail system has a large number of gas-heated points. Their fires kept getting blown out, so they're being phased out in favor of electric heaters.
In other news: planes de-iced with hot water (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/... [thesun.co.uk]
If I was on a plane and saw that I would immediately ask to be deplaned as I would not consider that aircraft airworthy.
Sorry only in 3rd world countries (Score:3)
Switches with _any_ security, may that be isolated rails or axle-counters would be ruined, not to mention the modern switches have plastic rolling supports that would melt.
These were used, because the old steel plaques had to be treated with oil every day or every couple of days by hand, which costs a fortune.
So most modern railway companies use automatic electric heating when the temperature falls below a certain point. It's way cheaper than having to pay people to go there and heat them by hand.
In some countries, Belgium f.ex. they use gas heating if it's only one or a couple of switches.
PS: I have been a railway dispatcher for 40 years.
How about environmental impact? (Score:1)
You all thought.... (Score:2)
...I was crazy for buying that flamethrower [slashdot.org]. Well, my railroad switches are working just fine...
This why railroads died in America (Score:3)
The roads are used by both tax payers and heavy commercial trucks of the 80,000 lb class. The damage done by on truck equals the wear and tear of some 9000 private cars. The cost of road and bridge project to accept 80,000 lb trucks makes them so expensive. But they get massively subsidized by the tax payers.
But there is very strongly embedded idea among the people that railroads are tax subsidized white elephants, while the commercial trucks are the epitome of free market and competition.
late 1940 to early 1950's where tolls at the state (Score:2)
late 1940 to early 1950's where tolls at the state level of owner ship
Re: (Score:2)
They also died because taxes on railroad tickets directly subsidized the highways and airports which replaced them.
A model where the rails are "public" and private operators can use them, similar to how cars and trucks use roads, might work. But both left and right would cry about that (right wouldn't like the public sector taking on the infrastructure costs and left wouldn't like private industry running the services).
Re: (Score:1)
They also died because taxes on railroad tickets directly subsidized the highways and airports which replaced them.
A model where the rails are "public" and private operators can use them, similar to how cars and trucks use roads, might work. But both left and right would cry about that (right wouldn't like the public sector taking on the infrastructure costs and left wouldn't like private industry running the services).
Ask the poor folks in the UK how your proposed idea is working out ? Guess you never heard of the bollocks called NetworkRail ?
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't a clue why the UK can't manage to do it, but Japan does at least cover operating expenses with fares. And those fares cost less per mile than their American and Canadian counterparts (dunno about the UK).
This wouldn’t work in most of the US (Score:2)
There are large parts of the country where we still use wooden ties.