Chicago lighting rail tracks on fire
Open flames help avoid snow and ice blockages caused by deep freeze
CHICAGO— It’s cold in Chicago — so cold the city’s commuter rail service is lighting tracks on fire to keep the trains running.
The service, Metra, is using open flames to keep switches working and help with track repairs during the historic deep freeze that’s settled over the U.S. Midwest.
Winter weather can cause snow and ice to clog switches, which control which rail trains run on. Clogged switches can bring trains to a halt until the blockage is cleared.
To combat the problem, Metra uses a gas-fed system that runs adjacent to the rail, generating heat in areas where switches are supposed to make contact. This system is used in normal winter weather, not just in the extreme cold seen Wednesday, spokesperson Mi- chael Gillis explained.
That system is turned on when the temperature falls below 4 C and stays on when it’s below freezing.
Extreme cold weather can cause steel to contract, causing breaks, said Metra spokeswoman Meg Thomas-Reile. While Metra uses continuously welded rail on most of the system, there are some locations near switches and some crossings where the rail is bolted together. Those areas are the most vulnerable to separating in frigid temperatures, although breaks can happen anywhere along the line.
To repair those breaks, Metra heats the rail, usually with a rope soaked in kerosene that is laid along the base of the rail and lit on fire, Thomas-Reile said.
The fire heats up the rail and once it expands, workers pull the rails back together and rebolt them or weld them.
Depending on the damage, workers also may need to cut and insert a short section of rail and weld it in place to bring the rails back together, ThomasReile said.
Broken tracks, switch problems and other mechanical issues caused extensive delays on the Metra system Wednesday, especially on the a line stretching to the city’s northwest suburbs.
The blast of polar air that enveloped much of the Midwest on Wednesday closed schools and businesses and strained infrastructure with some of the lowest temperatures in a generation.
Chicago dropped to a low of around -30 C Wednesday, slightly above the city’s lowestever reading of -33 C from January 1985.