Heat Waves Delay Trains. Blame ‘Sun Kinks’

[cteno4]

Extreme heat can cause train tracks to expand and buckle. That’s forcing rail operators to adapt as the climate warms

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-waves-can-buckle-train-tracks-delaying-commutes-and-commerce/

[bill937ca]

Its really nothing new.  Winnipeg used to get gaps in the rails on a -30F night. The line crews would go around and place gap fillers in the rails, but if a Chinook came into town and raised the temperature 20-30 degrees in an hour it would be a mad rush to get the  gap fillers out before the track buckled.

Edited July 11 by bill937ca

[cteno4]

Yes not new, just interesting new ways to detect issues. Nice to see train stuff like this make it into scientific American.

 

jeff

[bikkuri bahn]

Expansion joints in Japan:

JR Hokkaido used to run these spray trains: