Hi, I don’t recall seeing anything about how railroads deal with ice on rails, or if that is even a problem. How do they handle it?
Thanks, WIRailfan
Ice on the railhead is usually not a problem, unless perhaps if it is on an industrial track, it is very thick, and an empty car is being shoved; a locomotive will usually not be affected in that scenario.
However, ice formed in the flangeways, especially at grade crossings, is a problem. On lightly-used tracks crossing a busy road, each vehicle packs the snow more, and ice buildup is a real concern.
During winter, Metra has one train for each subdivision turned such that it leads locomotive-first in to the city. This is done so that the relatively lightweight cabcars are not leading over the crossings for the first trip in the morning. The first train from McHenry and the first train between Kenosha and Waukegan are turned. There are no trains on the McHenry sub after the last outbound the night before, and on the Kenosha sub there is only the occasional coal train or wayfreight.
Ice (and hard-packed snow) are also of great concern in yards and other places switch operation can be impaired or complete closure of the points is blocked.
Sweeping snow away doesn’t necessarily help the packing problem. And one great Union Pacific experiment using a FEF for ‘steam melting’ of ice on complicated trackwork foundered when the condensate from the steam proved perfectly effective at causing a range of ice problems once the boiler had passed to another location…
“Ice on Rails” sounds like a good band name! (to go completely off topic.)
On the other hand, “Rails on Ice” sounds like something the “Ice Capades” might have come up with.
They should do a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express”!
Thanks for that, I’ve often wondered how push-pull commuter operations dealt with this.
On industrial spurs we run the locomotive through iced-up crossings first to clear them out. Still have to be careful though, on a few occasions we have had loaded cars or even a locomotive derailed by ice/mud/dirt buildup in flangeways.
One of the worst spots I can think of isn’t even at a crossing, it is a remote location where the track runs through a deep cut that is obviously below the water table. Even in winter the springs continue to flow, and the track can become buried under what appears to be a small glacier.
Ice Scarifier.
Some Spreaders were fitted with adjustable Ice cutting teeth which were raised and lowered by compressed air to fracture packed snow and ice on tracks.
Example.
[quote user=“NDG”]
Ice Scarifier.
Some Spreaders were fitted with adjustable Ice cutting teeth which were raised and lowered by compressed air
to fracture packed snow and ice on tracks.
Dude, you reminded me of my trip home my first Christmas in college. On the direct route from Bristol to Asheville, the highway crossed throguh Sam’s Gap–where a spring came out of the mountaide (very good cold water, well worth stopping for a drink), and the water then went through a pipe under the road–except on cold nights in the winter, and then it spread over the highway. I had caught a ride with a gypsy truck driver, and he watched for ice on the road, and would carefully change lanes (two lane highway), and he did well until he came up behind a truck line truck, the driver of which had not shifted to avoid the ice, and my kind driver could not get around him. As it was, someone in a car came along, and my truck driver asked the driver to take me on in to Asheville.–and I was able to sleep in a warm bed that night.
Back to ice on rails.
The old highway still crosses through Sam’s Gap–but the output from the spring is entirely buried–when a new highway (without all the hairpins) was constructed apparently was when the stream was buried under the old highway.
Further.
Probably a good idea to leave Compressor ’ On ’ and Main Reservoir Drain Cock open a bit…
Steam locomotives had 1/4 inch steam lines to low points in water system far from radiant heat to protect same from freezing.
Hey, there you go! “Starlight Express on Ice!” Good-guy steam engine versus bad-guy diesel! I can dig it.
I would call that a tire chain, but that wheelset doesn’t have tires…
Doesn’t appear to be a driven wheel, so the chains would not help.
Coming this Fall on “History Channel” it’s Ice Track Railroaders.
Not to mention that traditional clasp brakes would be useless, as well…
I’m relieved to see someone remembers tire chains besides me!
Since the desire is to use ABS on ice and ABS tends to ‘pump the brakes’ the brake shoes would intermittenly apply only to the area of the wheels where the chains are not in place - timing of this should not be difficult at all especially when ECP is implemented.
You would be amazed how well tire chains do help on undriven axles on trailers in snow and ice in the mountains when they are required according to my drivers that have been over Donner in the winter. They keep the vechile tracking straight prevent them from sliding in the corners and stop jackknifes from happening. CA minimum required chains over Donner are a set of singles on the drives and set of singles on the trailer. Max chains are double railers on the front drives single set on the rear drives and a set on the trailer.