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What many countries started doing is painting rails white. I believe that is also happening in the UK. I believe they started doing that in Italy with good resu
by the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
What many countries started doing is painting rails white. I believe that is also happening in the UK. I believe they started doing that in Italy with good results. This is what the painting process looks like in Austria in a trial project: https://youtu.be/GBMWHAkk6xM?t=52 https://youtu.be/GBMWHAkk6xM?t=52
- nomdep 4y agoSo einfach, so wirksam
- O__________O 4y agoUnable to find guidelines or comment from the mods, but HN’s comments are in English, please use English unless it is a comment in English explaining a non-English term. (Dang, please clarify HN’s position on non-English comments; believe I recall seeing this before, but unable to find guidelines or comment from you. Thanks.) EDIT: Related comment from Dang on use of non-English submissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27571809 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27571809
- zabzonk 4y agoI agree completely with "comments in English, please". but despite not learning any German for over 50 years, I came up with "One think works", which is not too far off!
- Akronymus 4y ago"So easy, so effective" seems like the most appropriate translation in this case
- pvg 4y agoSubmissions have to be in English. The problem with the GP comment is not that it's not in English, it's that's it's tropey and unsubstantive. Just flag bad comments and move on.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoKannitverstaan! Was Du saggn?
- dang 4y agoSubmissions are community property, so to speak, so the rules are stricter for those. There's a lot more room for individual expression in comments. If someone's quoting a saying or making a quip that's best expressed in another language, that's fine. If they're consistently posting in a way that most people here can't understand, we'd ask them to stop.
- O__________O 4y agoUnderstand and agree, thanks for taking the time to respond!
- linker3000 4y agoFrom a linked page: "We paint certain parts of the rail white so they absorb less heat – and expand less. Typically, a rail painted white is 5°C to 10°C cooler than one left unpainted."
- the_mitsuhiko 4y agoLooks surprisingly laborious if this Twitter video is to trust: https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1547986150723244032 https://twitter.com/networkrail/status/1547986150723244032
- pimlottc 4y agoYou’d think they could make a robot to paint the rails but then again, the rails on the things that vehicles are supposed to be riding on! Perhaps you could make a device that rides on one rail while painting the other one. Flip it around and do the other side when you’ve done the first pass.
- fl0id 4y agoHow would this be any better then the video? It would also be much more expensive and complex then what they made.
- peterbraden 4y agoor just paint behind the robot
- rayiner 4y agoAnd use a pencil instead of inventing a pen that works in zero gravity.
- happymellon 4y agoThe pencil introduced graphite dust into the air that caused electrical problems. This is why astronauts use a pen. Sometimes the "cheap and simple" way has side effects that are more harmful than the original problem.
- bombcar 4y agoThe same thing is done to roofs in hotter climates; modern roof paint (expensive, it was $160 a gallon when I used it) on a roll roof can drop interior house temperatures 5-10 degrees or more.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoDoes this increase the longevity of the roofing material if used on something like asphalt shingles?
- bombcar 4y agoIt can, yes. But often with shingles you’re better of replacing them when worn with shingles that have the reflectivity “built in”.
- mordechai9000 4y agoWe replaced our 40 year old tar and gravel roof (with small light colored stones) with a dark colored architectural shingle. There was an immediate, noticable difference. On summer nights you could feel the heat radiating out of the attic after a long day in sun. This was in a cold climate, albeit at high latitude, so long days and low sun angle in the summer means more insolation. Since we rarely get above 70F here, I didn't think it would make much difference. Of course, it's only noticable a couple months out of the year.
- nine_k 4y agoIn a cold climate it could help with heating costs though, I suppose?
- mordechai9000 4y agoIt might help if we had some sunny fall days, until the snow flies, anyway.
- ekianjo 4y agohow long does the paint last?
- sschueller 4y agoI believe it lasts quite a while on the sides and the top is rubbed to a reflective shine when trains run over it anyways.
- cassepipe 4y agoCan't eroding paint chips pollute the environment ?
- Faaak 4y agoSame as when you fart
- masswerk 4y agoFrom the video: first trials achieved a cooling by 5 to 8°C.
- ThePadawan 4y agoHere's what SBB (the Swiss train operator) says at [0], german only: SBB will not rely on tracks painted white because - it makes it harder to discover cracks in the tracks - with prolonged use the effect noticeably lessens to due accumulation of dirt - ÖBB and SBB have measured he effect at ~5°C and that's not significant enough to be worth it. [0] https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/sommerdienst-sbb.html https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/so...
- the_mitsuhiko 4y agoIt might be a mixed bag and presumably different operators have different results. OeBB did not decide yet on the future, smaller operators are. Italy has been painting rails white for many years (40?) and continues to do so.
- curiousgal 4y agoWhy aren't they painting them backwards though?
- lostlogin 4y agoGood point. However the paint in the hip is going to rub off anyway and what’s underneath is reflective.
- spyder 4y agoAnd for a better effect they could use paint that can cool below the ambient temperature by radiating infrared to space (if they aren't already using that, but it's probably more expensive): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03911-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03911-8 Here is a YouTuber trying to making such paint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bJnKmeNJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bJnKmeNJY Another article: https://greekreporter.com/2022/05/08/revolutionary-white-paint-cool-greek-island-buildings-better-than-ac/ https://greekreporter.com/2022/05/08/revolutionary-white-pai...
- benbristow 4y agoThey started doing that a few years ago. Can see it in action on the main bridge going towards Glasgow Central as there's lots of points (15 platforms), seemed to help. Alternately, I've seen videos in the likes of Chicago where they've literally installed pretty much bunsen burners and set the rails on fire to deal with the winter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z76ywZDXyPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z76ywZDXyPw
- nier 4y agoSomewhere it was written that the ground underneath the trackbed also sinks in as it dries out. Is this not a mostly universal problem in addition to the temperature the tracks reach because of direct sunlight and lack of cool air? Don’t the majority of trackbeds deform when the ground below them shrinks like a dry sponge? Exceptions may be a railroad bridge built on bedrock?