O.T. ~ Cold Snap

JoeE. · Jan 16, 2018

It's been pretty cold here for the last few days. As the temperature falls, railroad rail shrinks in length. If there is an internal defect, the rail can't take the tension and breaks apart. This is the result.
A fellow employee was sent out at 4 a.m. to fix this, and he posted this picture.

Can you imagine the sound that made when it pulled apart!!!

Ciszewski · Jan 16, 2018

Cold Snap

JoeE. said:
Can you imagine the sound that made when it pulled apart!!!

Hello JoeE
Pun intended, right? :eek:

1 mile of rail is going to shrink 0.408672/°F drop in temp.

9100 · Jan 16, 2018

I seem to recall that railroad tracks are never laid in perfectly straight lines allowing some slack to adjust for expansion and contraction. Many years ago I had a physics book with a picture of tracks buckled from heat. It may have been from a forest fire, but I don't remember for sure.

Bill

steve45 · Jan 16, 2018

In the last 5 years or so, they replaced the rails in our area with very long rails. No apparent gaps, no more clickity-clack sound.

The temperature tonight is forecast to get down to 15° F, summer temps are often above 105° F, which begs the question, how does the track stay together?

michiganbuck · Jan 16, 2018

JoeE. said:
It's been pretty cold here for the last few days. As the temperature falls, railroad rail shrinks in length. If there is an internal defect, the rail can't take the tension and breaks apart. This is the result.
A fellow employee was sent out at 4 a.m. to fix this, and he posted this picture.

View attachment 218003

Can you imagine the sound that made when it pulled apart!!!

Wow and only 9 to 12*.. not that cold...hate to hit that gap at 60.

Cole2534 · Jan 16, 2018

Will that section of track be sent out for analysis? I'd love to hear what a metallugist says.

Was it possibly a field joint?

I also find it odd that nothing else appears disturbed. The RR ties didn't shift so the rail must have slid on them but the snow on either side of the spikes in the pic isn't disturbed. Granted, new snowfall can cover a lot....

Just curious.

SAG 180 · Jan 17, 2018

That top surface of the track has a few corrugations and more wear and tear than I'd like to see in a train track. Did it get used way past the normal expected life for such a track?. Seems a lot of problems world wide with railways has been due to cost cutting and resulting poor maintenance.

Monarchist · Jan 17, 2018

JoeE. said:
Can you imagine the sound that made when it pulled apart!!!

Surely. Not nearly as dramatic as a derailment.

Akin to a .22 pistol shot, if-even.

A sharpish "ting" from the metal, the rest a mere handclap as air filled the rather small partial vacuum when the net-thin'ish cross-section of the suddenly freed ends moved rapidly apart.

Not as if it were a multi-ton bridge beam dropping 20-plus feet then bouncing, nor ice piling up or breaking up on a major river after all.

Surface area matters a great deal to acoustics.

DDoug · Jan 17, 2018

michiganbuck said:
Wow and only 9 to 12*.. not that cold...hate to hit that gap at 60.

Only 60 mph ?

Let's have Joe come back and comment on the speeds on that section, and speeds
in general.

Locodad · Jan 17, 2018

The pictured break is at a weld (you can see the extra metal in the web). Track structure is laid to absorb and control forces of expansion and contraction. Sometimes, conditions exceed “local” limits (breaks/heat kinks). Pull a-parts and breaks ARE part of normal maintenance.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

toolsteel · Jan 17, 2018

Maybe a stupid question....I am not a "train guy" would this de rail a train? Or is it one of those things that maybe could derail a train?.........Obviously it looks scary as hell and I wouldnt want to be riding over it.....just curious how common and how serious it is to train people.

Locodad · Jan 17, 2018

toolsteel said:
Maybe a stupid question....I am not a "train guy" would this de rail a train? Or is it one of those things that maybe could derail a train?.........Obviously it looks scary as hell and I wouldnt want to be riding over it.....just curious how common and how serious it is to train people.

Not stupid at all; yes it could. The gap is “relatively small” (compared to wheel diameter) and the ends are well supported and in line so probably not at low speed. If this were a “high speed” line, the break would change the signals.

It would be good to hear from the “fellow employee”. He’s the one called to fix it.[emoji4]

GregSY · Jan 17, 2018

They need to get them boys from Forged in Fire out there to fix it...

redlee · Jan 17, 2018

Up here we go from -45 to + 40 if pipe,tracks and other similar installs arent made with expansion contraction provisions it would tear itself apart like the tracks in the pics.

DDoug · Jan 17, 2018

redlee said:
Up here we go from -45 to + 40 if pipe,tracks and other similar installs arent made with expansion contraction provisions it would tear itself apart like the tracks in the pics.

That's gonna make for some whiplash in the passenger cars eh ?...

Larry Dickman · Jan 17, 2018

the weatherman this morning said it was going to drop down into the 70's. Burrrrr

Danny VanVoorn · Jan 17, 2018

I imagine the ground is so solidly frozen that the ties couldn't adjust to the shrinkage of the track, the break is the weakest point?
Maybe someone has direct information to this story; A fellow told me that somebody tried to set tracks on solid foundations once and it was a bad move. If I remember correctly a train actually derailed because of that.
Bottom line was that the ties and track have worked well so don't fix something that isn't broken?
Dan

B-Mathews · Jan 17, 2018

This happens often on the Alaska railroad. There is an inspection crew is sent out well before the train departs the Yard. If a fault is made the crew fixes on the spot with the train on there heals. LOL

Chip Chester · Jan 17, 2018

So, is the 'fix' a welded-in-place segment, or a bit of rail bolted in place with plates on either side of the upright rail section? (I suppose third option is squeeze it back together and re-weld, but the force required to do that would be huge, and probably break something else.)
Chip

Scottl · Jan 17, 2018

9100 said:
I seem to recall that railroad tracks are never laid in perfectly straight lines allowing some slack to adjust for expansion and contraction. Many years ago I had a physics book with a picture of tracks buckled from heat. It may have been from a forest fire, but I don't remember for sure.

Bill

That is my understanding, along with the mounting being designed to allow some slippage along the axis of the rail during expansion and contraction. I've noticed many of the rail mounts around here appear to incorporate some sort of spring.

There are railroads in places like Alaska, Siberia, etc. where seasonal temperature differences are huge and yet fractures like this are rare.

O.T. ~ Cold Snap

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