eli5 Why do trains with steel wheels have traction on steel rails, but if your brakes on your car are used up and become steel on steel they dont work anymore?
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Trains are very big and very heavy. Relative to their size they actually don’t have that much traction which is why they can’t stop on a dime or quickly accelerate. Also their wheels and the rails are fairly smooth and do get worn over time but they’re very thick. Car brakes on the other hand are not built to work like this, so if you had no brake pads left you’d still brake, but the brake rotor would be damaged a lot and the braking would be far worse than normal.
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