Hello all
Recently I did some train travel in Italy and noticed some of the track, rail mainly, sometime ballast, appeared to have been painted white. Just wondering if anyone would know what this was for? Something to do with track inspection such as crack testing?
Bill
On my carrier in many locations, Insulated Joints that are used in road crossing protection are painted White. When equipment passes over the insulated joint the crossing protection is activated. When the track segments between insulated joints are clear of rail equipment that activate track circuits the crossing protection doesn’t operate.
Each carrier may have it’s own uses for white paint.
In this country, step joints/step rail/insulated joints/replacement rail (so it’s not confused with rail aready ordered out by the rail detector)
Over there: probably as reflective protection against sun kinks (white reflects sunlight instead of absorbing the light and heat into the rail)/ keeps the rail cooler. (this is being tried by UP and BNSF in some of the desert states on a trial basis)
You see white-painted rail here and there in the Toronto area.
In German and Italian forums there a two explanation.
Rail is painted white to reflect the sun and keep the rails a few degrees cooler.
In rail stations rails and ballast are whitewashed to keep the smell from feces from open train sanitary systems down.
True? At least possible.
Regards, Volker
I thought there were signs that said, “do not flush the toilet while in a station?”
You are right. But even we Germans tended towards ignoring this rule sometimes.
Regards, Volker
There were signs in this country (and in Canada?) that read something like that. There may well have been similar signs, in the native language in other countries. Howeve, not all users realized the significance of the signs.
Now you have to be very careful not to throw used diapers into the pot.
Any more here, the dreaded blue AmCrap isn’t flushed anymore; it sits in a microphor redwood cedar lined tank until sucked out at certain terminals equipped for the task or a certain depth in the tank.
(Odd, some of the weed problem went away about the same time and the R/W isn’t so green anymore near the main track.[+o(][+o(][+o(])
Well, when you stop applying fertilizer the growth is not as succulent.[:)]
Someone did just that on a Norfolk-Southern steam excursion we rode back in the early 90’s. There we were at Appomattox Station with the train parked and the car host standing in the door when “GLOOOSH!” someone flushed the toilet. The car host turned a shade of deep red and ran back into the car.
We could hear a voice “But Mother just couldn’t wait!”
Oh well…
That sounds reasonable to me. It was certainly hot there, and I think the white ballast was mainly in the stations. Plenty of evidence that the signs are not always observed! It was only the main tracks painted or whitewashed, not the side tracks. I only noticed the white in Italy, not in the other countries we visited.
Thank you for your replies.
Bill
At least they didn’t choose to install Incinolets on the cars!
Portable oilfield and refinery waste gas flares, how quaint![:-,]
In Australia, rail was experimentally painted white to reduce the highest temperatures in a number of locations, often in sharp curves, in an attempt to reduce buckling of long welded rail in summer.
I don’t know if it worked or even if any tests were carried out.
Subsequently concrete ties with Pandrol fasteners were installed.
The white painted rail is still there, made a little more obvious by the occasional unpainted plug of replacement rail.
Peter
England
Italy
https://pwayblog.com/2016/09/16/white-rails/
Some discussion here
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/101544-italians-painting-the-rails-white/
US railroads discussion
Makes you feel for the section gangs.
And I’ve heard it said that “back in the day” the open platform at the end of the train was not a place you wanted to be when the train was at speed.
That cloud behind the train wasn’t necessarily dust…
I’ve heard stories from the folks who replaced the straight-to-track approach on our cars with barrels (which get dumped periodically a la campers - did one of our cars this morning). There was a lot of scraping done under the cars…
“And I’ve heard it said that “back in the day” the open platform at the end of the train was not a place you wanted to be when the train was at speed.”
And the same was true for dutch door riding on regular or excursion trains.
Mark Vinski
I read somwhere that Amtrak had to install retention toilets on its Florida trains as fishermen would get rained on under the bridge on the St. John’s river when trains went by. They fished there because the fishing was good. The fish hung out there because of the “rain.” Sort of a “circle of life” kind of thing. Hakuna Matata!
In Canada I’m pretty sure all passenger trains, including tourist trains, now have retention tanks for the toilets.