Heat buckles

[aussiesteve]

Congrats on joining the heat buckled track club.
Ever since capitalism introduced continuous weld rail, we have had to contend with potential buckled rails during hot days.
The WOLO telegram being implemented to instruct all trains to reduce speed.
According to the International TV news, not many trains running around the Old Dart during the 40.1 C.
Our dramas down-under are currently due to water.
WE have had heaps of it.
Numerous landslips and submerged track closing rail lines.
Mum Nature is definitely cranky around the globe.
Mind you, I would prefer the heat to our current winter chill, the worst for some moons.
At least we have only suffered the one power blackout thus far.
And, that was while I was in the dental distress chair getting me wonky choppers drilled.

[DSY011]

I would rather have it the other way. I am more comfortable in the colder weather than the hot, even though I was born in Africa on the edge of the Kalahari desert. I spent almost all my youth in North and Southern Rhodesia, where it often got up to 112f in the shade. You can always get warm when it's cold, but it's not so easy to get cool when it's hot. Spent as much time as I could in the swimming pool, but even the pool would get warn on cloudless days.
We never had long weld railway lines as the heat would buckle the track.

[Beeyar Wunby]

Have to admit I'm with Syd on this one. I really hate the heat.

I've only ever experienced 40C once before. That was on Tenerife, but it was at much less humidity than here.

I've inherited the 'Curse of the Wunby Sinus'. Any time the pressure is high it feels like someone has put their hand up my nose and is is squeezing my brain. Luckily this time some of our Antipodean friends popped up on a Facebook page I was on and said that when the weather is severe they soak their clothes in water and put a wet flannel over their faces.

I wasn't sure if they were taking the mickey, but it really worked for me. I spent the two hot days pegged out like a starfish, dripping with water. But it was bearable.

I feel sorry for the people who had to go out in it - like the overworked firefighters.

And Steve, it sounds like you've got all our water - we haven't had rain for ages, so I suspect we'll have a drought next.

Keep safe everyone, John

[boilersuit]

The TV news programmes don't seem to understand the concept of rails buckling due to expansion in the heat. More than once I've heard it stated that the trains themselves cause the buckling in hot weather.

[Beeyar Wunby]

Originally Posted by boilersuit

The TV news programmes don't seem to understand the concept of rails buckling due to expansion in the heat. More than once I've heard it stated that the trains themselves cause the buckling in hot weather.

Journalists - thick as mud but full of self-importance.

And it's not just the running rails. In AC land the OHLE catenary wire expands in high temperatures, causing the contact wire to hang lower with less tension, so it's possible for a train's pantograph(s) to pull it down.

As 'Grant the Gob' is babbling at the moment, it's gonna cost a lot of money to heat-proof the network for future events - and we're not in a good place economically right now.

[aussiesteve]

Well, as we all know, big rigs pound the bitumen into potholes.
So, naturally it must follow that big lumbering trains will damage the track.
And yes, don't go pulling down their precious overhead in smog hollow.
Electrouble mob go off the deep end when anyone causes grief to that overhead.
But, it has been 20 years since locos with pantographs have battled under that overhead.
Weasels are the go for big lumbering trains.
Though, I remember an incident back in the mid 1990s.
I was rattling down the hill to attend a union meeting in smog hollow and riding up the front of the urban.
The smog hollow hogger knew me and asked me to take over to spell him when we lobbed into Penrith.
So, I belted it across the speedway until hitting the top of the hill at Mount Druitt.
Suddenly the power went.
Looking up, the overhead was still hanging nicely and not wobbling which would indicate a panto drama.
Jamming me head out the tiny side window, I could not espy much of the train, but nothing looked out of place.
I got on the intercom to the tailgunner to ask him to check the gauges in his cab to see if there was power.
He replied that all the gauges seemed to indicate normal.
Thumping reset, pan up and lights on buttons did not resolve the drama.
I asked the hogger if he wanted me to stop as was the rule for when loosing the overhead.
I suggested that we could cost to Blacktown the next stop.
I had learnt real early on freighters that you could coast from Mount Druitt to Parramatta.
He said that the overhead looked ok, so yes coast.
Pulling up in the middle of nowhere would result in a mega delay to the service.
I pulled us up on the platform at Blacktown and we climbed out to take a gander.
A squirt pulled in beside us and a bunch of newbie etr blokes were in the cab learning the road.
They were all kacking themselves laughing.
When I espied the front car pan, OH GOLLY GOSH.
It was bent backwards and collapsed down on the roof.
Crikey, that meant the urban was a total failure and could not be moved until that panto was be secured by rope.
We were baffled as to how this had occurred.
So, we kicked all of the urban cattle out to continue into town on the squirt.
I asked the hogger if he wanted me to remain to assist with securing the panto.
He told me to also jump on the squirt or I would miss the union meeting.
He had to await for electrouble to arrive to secure the panto.
I suggested that he tell them that he lost the overhead approaching Blacktown.
Well, I discovered later that electrouble knew exactly where the problem occurred.
A freighter had rattled along the speedway ahead of the urban and had a wonky panto collector strip.
It had dislodged a catenary drop hanger on the contact wire at the top of the hill at Mount Druitt.
And, it was that dangling drop hanger that the panto on the urban had hit bending it backwards.
The poor urban hogger got in the poo for coasting all the way to Blacktown and not stopping straight away.
WELL, no more damage was done and at least the cattle got to continue and not be stranded in nomans land.
OH, BW, yer wet clobber notion is the basis of the Coolgardie safe.
The coolgardie safe was invented prior to the refrigerator.
A frame covered in hessian over which water is dribbled.
The evaporation occurring keeping the safe contents at a cooler temp than outside.
Me Grands had one to keep meat, milk and butter in.
It also be the technology of the canvas water bag.
On soot belchers to have a cool water supply you fill up the canvas water bag and sling it out the cab window.
The breeze rattling along creating that evaporation through the canvas resulting in cooling the water inside.
People survived before electricity.
But I would much rather have electricity to pump into me heater dingus when it is frigid.
Give me a nice HOT day any time.

[Beeyar Wunby]

Aint evaporation grand? Well, I'll certainly be doing the 'Miss Wet Teeshirt' thing in future years.

Things took an interesting turn actually. As I mentioned I was really in a bad place on the hotest day here. The good news turned out to be that it wasn't Hay Fever I was suffering from, the bad news is that I'd caught the Omichron thing. It's a complete bind, but it'll pass in time. Oh and Lady Wunby now has it too, so we're both sitting here coughing like Sea Lions. Hey ho.

Originally Posted by Steve

Give me a nice HOT day any time.

Well if we find a way of bottling it you can have ours!

Cheers, John

[aussiesteve]

Crikey BW, you coulda warned me to disinfect the the forum page before reading.
Sorry to hear that you dun copped the plague.
I have been hiding from it now for over two years.
Hopefully your recovery will be swift and you won't suffer any lingering Long Covid.
And, somebody did bottle air, well in aerosol cans, some moons ago.
Buy it and flip the ring pull to sniff fresh bottled air.
People will try flogging anything to make moolah.
And, there are people stupid enough to buy anything.

[hereward]

Coolgardie safe - so that is what they are called. Funny they have always stuck in my mind since I read about them in one of only two books, I think, by Australians. One was "A Fortunate Life," I think, and one about a woman flying doctor, I remember little else about either.

[DSY011]

I left the Rhodesian Railways in 1969 and fled to the U.K. on the Union Castle Line, landing in Southampton in July, but I still have my old water bag that I used on the Rhodesian Railways. The cork gave up years ago as it dried out in my garden shed.
There was nothing better than to clean the fire for the next crew, wash down the cab with the slack hose, and pour the remains of the water in my bag over my head. Even at night when the temp. could still be in the high 70s. Hanging the water bag over the hand rail of the cab would keep the water cool in the day and very cold at night. I have not filled the bag since then, so I don't think it would hold any water for long, if at all. Not going to try as it may fall apart.