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Trains May Soon Come Equipped With Debris-Zapping Lasers

Posted by Soulskill on from the working-their-way-up-to-cow-zapping-lasers dept.

Molly McHugh writes: Holland's chief transportation service is testing a unique new way to clear the rails of fallen leaves and other small debris: by mounting lasers on the fronts of locomotives. The lasers will cause the leaves, which produce a condition commonly referred to as "slippery rail" in the fall and winter months, to vanish in a puff of smoke.

3 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. They're leaves. by Falos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be easier to mount brushes or something?

    1. Re:They're leaves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      anything that directly touches the track

      High pressure air then. Got to be less harmful to the steel than a wet leaf vaporizing laser.

      A couple thousand PSIG will take off the wet leaves, water, ice, light rust, paint and anything else they could possibly care about.

    2. Re:They're leaves. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      At least those are pointed down at the track; the reflections aren't much of a hazard.

      Lasers strong enough to set things on fire quickly tend to also be strong enough to cause eye damage from diffuse reflection, especially when you are trying to burn something larger than a pin point and that is possibly quite damp.