4 ms·

It’s so cold in Chicago, crews had to set fire to commuter rail tracks

28 points by gscott 8y ago

dangus 8y ago
Just a note, there is a difference between setting fires manually to tracks and permanently installed switch heaters: https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/the-signal/fighting-fire-switch-heaters-2 https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/the-signal/fighti...
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  But that isn't nearly as exciting of a clickbait headline as "setting fire to railroad tracks on purpose". I would be interested if any Metra folks could chime in as to why induction heat isn't used instead of open gas flames. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5389766A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US5389766A/en (rail snow-melting by electromagnetic induction heating) http://indheater.com/ http://indheater.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQi0DEcGWs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQi0DEcGWs
  - bunderbunder 8y ago
    The induction heaters you're linking are designed to be permanently installed. They're perfect for switch heating, but probably not a cost-effective option for maintenance work. You'd need to have the heaters installed very close together over the entire length of the track, and the likelihood that any one of them actually needs to be used to heat the track for repairs would be very small. A portable option might be possible, but then you'd have to mess with batteries or generators or something to provide the power. Ropes soaked in kerosene sounds to me like the "the cosmonauts used a pencil"† option. † (Yes, I know that this is an urban legend.)
teilo 8y ago
>When it gets to be several degrees below freezing, the metal of the train tracks can contract to the point that it will pull up the bolts holding it in place, or even stress fracture. This is bad reporting. This is nothing new, and happens every winter. It is only necessary to manually light them up with a kerosene soaked rope when repairing a piece of track. As should be obvious, below-freezing temperatures happen every year in Chicago, and train tracks need to be repaired even in the winter.
- nategri 8y ago
  Yeah saw this tweet this morning and felt kind of ashamed for falling for the clickbait yesterday: https://twitter.com/arkmashton/status/1090971061569622016 https://twitter.com/arkmashton/status/1090971061569622016
- cwyers 8y ago
  That doesn't say it's new, or that it doesn't happen every winter.
  - bunderbunder 8y ago
    The way the headline is worded, along with the fact that it's a headline in the first place, implies that it's an unprecedented thing, even if the article doesn't go out and state it. Had they wanted to, they could have come up with a much less linkbait-y way to talk about how track maintenance works in the winter.
    - gscott 8y ago
      Everyone outside of the areas where it gets cold enough for this to happen... I found it fascinating. Hacker news is partly about hacking a problem to find a solution and it seems this is a good hack. It's click-baity but you can imagine yourself in the shoes of the original person looking at the problem and going through the steps until they figure out that it can be solved by burning a rope... it is interesting.
forgottenpass 8y ago
>as a smart race of human beings, still have to resort to medieval methods of re-warming metal train tracks Drinking water and eating food to stay alive is so outdated you guys. Groceries don't even have touchscreens.
bobm_kite9 8y ago
This is good though, right? In the UK the points regularly freeze at even just a couple of degrees below zero, and the trains are just cancelled.
ericd 8y ago
Are there alloys that don’t have this level of thermal expansion/contraction that could be used instead?
- joezydeco 8y ago
  There are, but the cost of building thousands of miles of rails out of it would be incredibly prohibitive.
  - ericd 8y ago
    Ah yep, I meant alloys that are reasonable to use for rail, including cost restrictions. I had heard that the TGV has welded rails rather than expansion gaps, which necessitated a low-thermal-expansion alloy. But I don't anything about it beyond that.
- sebazzz 8y ago
  Or add perhaps gaps of 1 cm? Or would that cause wear and tear, or dangerous situations?

28 points by gscott 8y ago

Just a note, there is a difference between setting fires manually to tracks and permanently installed switch heaters: https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/the-signal/fighting-fire-switch-heaters-2 https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/the-signal/fighti...

toomuchtodo 8y ago
But that isn't nearly as exciting of a clickbait headline as "setting fire to railroad tracks on purpose". I would be interested if any Metra folks could chime in as to why induction heat isn't used instead of open gas flames. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5389766A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US5389766A/en (rail snow-melting by electromagnetic induction heating) http://indheater.com/ http://indheater.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQi0DEcGWs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQi0DEcGWs
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  The induction heaters you're linking are designed to be permanently installed. They're perfect for switch heating, but probably not a cost-effective option for maintenance work. You'd need to have the heaters installed very close together over the entire length of the track, and the likelihood that any one of them actually needs to be used to heat the track for repairs would be very small. A portable option might be possible, but then you'd have to mess with batteries or generators or something to provide the power. Ropes soaked in kerosene sounds to me like the "the cosmonauts used a pencil"† option. † (Yes, I know that this is an urban legend.)

teilo 8y ago

>When it gets to be several degrees below freezing, the metal of the train tracks can contract to the point that it will pull up the bolts holding it in place, or even stress fracture. This is bad reporting. This is nothing new, and happens every winter. It is only necessary to manually light them up with a kerosene soaked rope when repairing a piece of track. As should be obvious, below-freezing temperatures happen every year in Chicago, and train tracks need to be repaired even in the winter.

nategri 8y ago
Yeah saw this tweet this morning and felt kind of ashamed for falling for the clickbait yesterday: https://twitter.com/arkmashton/status/1090971061569622016 https://twitter.com/arkmashton/status/1090971061569622016
cwyers 8y ago
That doesn't say it's new, or that it doesn't happen every winter.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  The way the headline is worded, along with the fact that it's a headline in the first place, implies that it's an unprecedented thing, even if the article doesn't go out and state it. Had they wanted to, they could have come up with a much less linkbait-y way to talk about how track maintenance works in the winter.
  - gscott 8y ago
    Everyone outside of the areas where it gets cold enough for this to happen... I found it fascinating. Hacker news is partly about hacking a problem to find a solution and it seems this is a good hack. It's click-baity but you can imagine yourself in the shoes of the original person looking at the problem and going through the steps until they figure out that it can be solved by burning a rope... it is interesting.

forgottenpass 8y ago

>as a smart race of human beings, still have to resort to medieval methods of re-warming metal train tracks Drinking water and eating food to stay alive is so outdated you guys. Groceries don't even have touchscreens.

bobm_kite9 8y ago

This is good though, right? In the UK the points regularly freeze at even just a couple of degrees below zero, and the trains are just cancelled.

ericd 8y ago

Are there alloys that don’t have this level of thermal expansion/contraction that could be used instead?

joezydeco 8y ago
There are, but the cost of building thousands of miles of rails out of it would be incredibly prohibitive.
- ericd 8y ago
  Ah yep, I meant alloys that are reasonable to use for rail, including cost restrictions. I had heard that the TGV has welded rails rather than expansion gaps, which necessitated a low-thermal-expansion alloy. But I don't anything about it beyond that.
sebazzz 8y ago
Or add perhaps gaps of 1 cm? Or would that cause wear and tear, or dangerous situations?