What were they doing to the railroad tracks?

Question

i was driving on the highway which runs along a track for about 15 miles and on a particular stretch of about 150 yards (it was night) there was a fire centered directly in the middle of the tracks...the flames were uniform as if there were a propane line running down the center of the tracks and the were flames about 8 inches apart ...it was in a straight line and perfectly centered and the flames were the same size and intensity....was this some kind of routine maintenance and if so what were they doing...there was a csx vehicle parked on the side of the tracks also so it appeared controlled...this is the first time in 25 years of driving that stretch of track i have ever seen this...anyone?

Answer 1

It is called "burning a rope".  

A rope, serving as a wick, is soaked with Kerosene and ignited.  This is done by maintenance of way crews when working with CWR (Continuous Welded Rail), aka ribbon rail.

The rope is burned to heat the rail to a specific temperature for purposes of rejoining separated rail, most often done in colder temperatures, but used whenever needed.

Heating the rail is necessary, since there are no expansion joints, and the rail must be joined in a fashion that lets it expand, though the expansion is minimal along the horizontal plane.

Specific rail weights require different temperatures.  If walking on the tracks, sometimes you will see writing with a chalk like material, denoting the temperature needed or that was used on the joint.

Answer 2

When it snows, railroads burn gas from propane tanks at switch tracks to keep them from freezing.

Answer 3

Well believe it or not, The maintenance man was burning a length of rope probably soaked in Kerosene to heat the Rail to (now get this) to move it back into place, you see when they heat the rail it will stretch back into place and they will put a bar on it until they can get it welded back in place.