this isn’t the point of the story, but is that paint truck driving on the railroad tracks?
Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
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Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#22> Union Pacific Is Tackling Rail Heat to Keep America’s Freight on Track
Someone talked to an LLM which convinced them they had a brilliant idea.
Just a guess ...
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#23Paint everything white! Why stop at rails? Mostly because it doesn't stay white and looks bad. But it doesn't stop people from painting their siding white, for example. Why paint the sides of the rails? Well you can paint the tops, but it tends to gum up the wheels and get worn off. You want a paint with high reflectivity and high emissivity. Just be sure you aren't using infrared light temp measurement as to measure…
> Why paint the sides of the rails? Well you can paint the tops, but it tends to gum up the wheels and get worn off.
Tops of rails are already pretty shiny for any mainline track seeing a couple dozen trains a day. I'd bet they are more reflective than white paint could be. And the paint would be gone after the first train passes through anyways.
They rust pretty quick, but with regular use it doesn't build up much since it's constantly being worn off from the wheel friction.
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#24Paint everything white! Why stop at rails? Mostly because it doesn't stay white and looks bad. But it doesn't stop people from painting their siding white, for example. Why paint the sides of the rails? Well you can paint the tops, but it tends to gum up the wheels and get worn off. You want a paint with high reflectivity and high emissivity. Just be sure you aren't using infrared light temp measurement as to measure…
The top of the rail is already white!!!
It's just polished, so that it is reflective.
If you sanded it with your 180 grit paper, you would get the scattering which appears white.
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Motorcycle riders also report their sidestands sinking into 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.
Usually, a crushed soda can is good enough to prevent the kickstand to sync in the pavement. You can usually find a can in a random parking lot. That, or find a strip of concrete. That's why sometimes motorcycle park on the sidewalk in front of big box stores on a hot day.
Yep, I use a soda can and have never had any issues.
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#26You can literally buy derailers[1]. People will find away around this, making white paint useless. Engineers need to engineer.
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#27You can literally buy derailers[1]. People will find away around this, making white paint useless. Engineers need to engineer. 1. https://www.aldonco.com/product-category/derails/
OK, but a heatwave isn't going to buy a derailer
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 sinking into 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.
My bicycle did this as kid in the summer
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#29this isn’t the point of the story, but is that paint truck driving on the railroad tracks?
Yes, they're called "high-rail" or "road-rail" vehicles. They have rail wheels that can be lowered down to drive on tracks or raised up for road use.
Re: Painting the sides of railroad rails white to reduce derailment
#30Paint everything white! Why stop at rails? Mostly because it doesn't stay white and looks bad. But it doesn't stop people from painting their siding white, for example. Why paint the sides of the rails? Well you can paint the tops, but it tends to gum up the wheels and get worn off. You want a paint with high reflectivity and high emissivity. Just be sure you aren't using infrared light temp measurement as to measure…
> Why paint the sides of the rails? Well you can paint the tops, but it tends to gum up the wheels and get worn off. Tops of rails are already pretty shiny for any mainline track seeing a couple dozen trains a day. I'd bet they are more reflective than white paint could be. And the paint would be gone after the first train passes through anyways. They rust pretty quick, but with regular use it doesn't build up much s…
Thank you, I was wondering why the need for paint rather than side polishing and the added knowledge that this blend of Steel rusts would ruin that for the non-contact surfaces.
Painting it cheeper than polishing. But I wanted to know the reason they needed to / that made it so.