In a somewhat related practice, some roads in the Tour de France this year have been painted with "white shit" (rider Tom Pidcock's words) in order to combat the asphalt melting in the heat, with the unfortunate side-effect that it seems to be slippery and several riders (including Tom Pidcock) crashed going around a corner when the lost traction.
But of course, this was done in response to past serious crashes that occured because the asphalt melted. So, it's sort of a damned if you do damned if you dont scenario for the organizers.
Pepe's Towing in Los Angeles reports asphalt collapses where loaded semitrailers are parked with the landing gear down. On hot days the concentrated load of the landing gear sometimes punches through the asphalt.[1]
This is why truck dock areas are usually paved with concrete.
Motorcycle riders also report their sidestands punching through asphalt on very hot days, to the extent that many of them carry some kind of wide weight-spreading thing to put under the stand. Apparently a face plate (?) for an electrical junction box works great.
Just go slower! We don't want to pay for maintenance. What's the worst that could happen? You derail and your toxic payload catches fire and poisons the neighbourhood?
I think the safety officer meant that white paint prevents the rail from heating up. The heating of rails contributes to problems with derailment. If the heat isn't a contributor, that heat is one less thing you have to fight (as in account for).
But the photo caption paraphrases him and says that the white paint fights (as in prevents) the heat, which uses similar words but a different logic to it (but the same overall meaning).
If I've got that right, then I think the blame lies on whoever wrote this article for making it confusing.
Why couldn't this also help with continuous-welded rail?
Your own video points out that it's still prone to trade-offs: rail breaks in the cold are better than buckling in the heat, but what if you could reduce the high point with white paint so you could expand the practical temperature range?
Trucks and trains serve different purposes. My understanding is the US has a higher percentage than most of freight carried by rail. Indeed at the expense of its passenger rail
In a somewhat related practice, some roads in the Tour de France this year have been painted with "white shit" (rider Tom Pidcock's words) in order to combat the asphalt melting in the heat, with the unfortunate side-effect that it seems to be slippery and several riders (including Tom Pidcock) crashed going around a corner when the lost traction.
Coverage here: https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/tour-de-fran...
But of course, this was done in response to past serious crashes that occured because the asphalt melted. So, it's sort of a damned if you do damned if you dont scenario for the organizers.
Pepe's Towing in Los Angeles reports asphalt collapses where loaded semitrailers are parked with the landing gear down. On hot days the concentrated load of the landing gear sometimes punches through the asphalt.[1]
This is why truck dock areas are usually paved with concrete.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBrULmCGJfc
Motorcycle riders also report their sidestands punching through asphalt on very hot days, to the extent that many of them carry some kind of wide weight-spreading thing to put under the stand. Apparently a face plate (?) for an electrical junction box works great.
At least they're doing something.
I couldn't believe the state of US railtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X2A2f6E5DI
Just go slower! We don't want to pay for maintenance. What's the worst that could happen? You derail and your toxic payload catches fire and poisons the neighbourhood?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Palestine,_Ohio,_train_de...
Maintenance is expensive, profits are now!
"That’s huge. If you’re not fighting the sun’s heat, you dramatically reduce the risk of the rail shifting.”
Am I misreading or does this say the opposite of what they meant?
I think the safety officer meant that white paint prevents the rail from heating up. The heating of rails contributes to problems with derailment. If the heat isn't a contributor, that heat is one less thing you have to fight (as in account for).
But the photo caption paraphrases him and says that the white paint fights (as in prevents) the heat, which uses similar words but a different logic to it (but the same overall meaning).
If I've got that right, then I think the blame lies on whoever wrote this article for making it confusing.
You are misreading. Basically the white paint is "fighting the sun's heat".
I love a simple solution to billion dollar problems
Practical Engineering already explained the correct solution to this problem:
https://youtu.be/zqmOSMAtadc?si=UUlmnk9sI-leq0SV
But of course, American infrastructure was built on the cheap, and is not maintained correctly. This is why we can't have nice things.
Why couldn't this also help with continuous-welded rail?
Your own video points out that it's still prone to trade-offs: rail breaks in the cold are better than buckling in the heat, but what if you could reduce the high point with white paint so you could expand the practical temperature range?
We have like 220,000 miles of railroad. We do have nice things: a working freight railroad system that helps reduce transit costs.
If the freight rail system were as good as it should be, long distance trucking would be a rounding error instead of the dominant freight mode.
Trucks and trains serve different purposes. My understanding is the US has a higher percentage than most of freight carried by rail. Indeed at the expense of its passenger rail
Airlines killed passenger rail, not freight. Prior to it all being rolled into Amtrak virtually every railroad was losing money on passenger service.
Reducing derailment by decreasing track movement by painting the does of the track white, to reflect heat absorbed from the sun.