It is a familiar sight by this point for Chicago-area residents, but it’s still a fascinating spectacle as railroad workers light fires along rails during periods of cold weather.
Metra workers did just that on Monday, lighting up fires in the afternoon and into the evening after a prolonged period of cold weather in the area.
So why do workers light small fires along the rails?
To be precise, the tracks themselves aren’t being lit on fire. The fires are actually being lit to help fuel gas-powered heaters at different points along the tracks, especially near switches.
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Those heaters have to be manually lit, and they are dedicated to helping melt ice that accumulates and freezes on the switch components and the tracks.
That ice can not only cause wheel slippage on rails, but can also cause switches to operate more slowly or to even stop working altogether, causing extensive delays for trains that are awaiting switch clearance to get routed onto their proper tracks.
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According to Popular Mechanics, ice can disrupt the flow of electricity that allows switches to operate, meaning that trains have to slow down or even stop completely to allow the switch to move.
Even with the fires, there were still plenty of switch issues on Chicago-area rail lines Monday, with air temperatures still below zero degrees and wind chills plunging to 20-to-30 degrees below zero.
