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Frozen Train Tracks? Set 'Em on Fire (theatlantic.com)
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.
Speaking as an Atlanta native, we are well aware that Northerners have plenty of experience heating up railroad tracks.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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 change their way of life. That perception still exists today and can partially explain the rise of the alt-right and white nationalist movements in mainstream American politics.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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!
Yes to all this! And by the way, they did use jet fuel on the tracks.... aka: kerosene.