Are train tracks hot after a train goes over them?

Question

My friend and I were discussing this the other day. Trains move at a fast pace but do they make enough friction to heat the tracks?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

No!

Answer 3

friction hot can melt a penny

Answer 4

warm but not hot - dont go touching them they may be electrified !!!!

Answer 5

Yes, but they would only cause an increases in temperature of a few hundredths of a degree.. ie: the change in temperature is so tiny that you wouldn't be able to detect it unless you had a very sensitive thermometer.

Answer 6

Indeed they do.

But, the heat produced isn't from friction.  It is precisely the lack of friction that makes moving tonnage in this fashion practical and economic.

The next time you are watching a freight train pass, note what the rail does as each wheel passes over it.  You will see it take a little 'dip.'  This action produces the heat, just like when you take a wire, like from a coat hangar, in your hands and start bending it back and forth.  It gets hot.

But, they get far hotter from the sun.

Answer 7

YES, a train heats the tracks as it passes over them, but...

The heat is NOT from friction (friction is negligible on a railroad), the heat is from compression, the weight of the train, and the flexing of the rail.

Answer 8

only when breaking or pulling away. at all other times friction isnt  too bad....the tracke sdont get hot I would just say a little warm....with it being a huge amount of steel the heat is dissipated very quickly