Railroads have thermal expansion problems with new-style all-welded rail, even with a variety of ameliorative techniques and lots of history and experience. And

Railroads have thermal expansion problems with new-style all-welded rail, even with a variety of ameliorative techniques and lots of history and experience. And rail doesn't need to maintain sub-mm tolerances. Is the Hyperloop construction going to somehow pre-stress the tubes like they do with welded rail? That's a big big tool. It's a legitimate problem. I don't think slip joints at the end is going to be the only solution. Over a single day you might experience 40 degrees in temperature change, and thus 250 ft movement over the course of a day. I bet you could see it move. That's scary, and I can't believe it wouldn't create kinks or local bends that would be bad at even 300mph. I think it'd have to have some sort of local expansion joint. More complicated than proposed--but isn't it always?