How do they avoid “clack-clack” sounds on high-speed trains? Are the rails made without gaps? And how do they manage thermal expansion then?
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I grew up on a farm bordered by two rails, one major freight one small line. I remember as a kid/teen when it was a cool night but then it heated up fast in the morning a sort of weird sound… hard to describe it. A bit like ice on a large lake cracking where it would start at one point then radiate out to the other side. It would start at one end of the line then echo down the rails to the other side. A booming bending iron under stress I suck at descriptors sound…
I had always assumed it had to do with some sort of temperature differential as the sun heated the cool rails. Was I right or was it some other rail phenomenon?
I grew up on a farm bordered by two rails, one major freight one small line. I remember as a kid/teen when it was a cool night but then it heated up fast in the morning a sort of weird sound… hard to describe it. A bit like ice on a large lake cracking where it would start at one point then radiate out to the other side. It would start at one end of the line then echo down the rails to the other side. A booming bending iron under stress I suck at descriptors sound…
I had always assumed it had to do with some sort of temperature differential as the sun heated the cool rails. Was I right or was it some other rail phenomenon?
I grew up on a farm bordered by two rails, one major freight one small line. I remember as a kid/teen when it was a cool night but then it heated up fast in the morning a sort of weird sound… hard to describe it. A bit like ice on a large lake cracking where it would start at one point then radiate out to the other side. It would start at one end of the line then echo down the rails to the other side. A booming bending iron under stress I suck at descriptors sound…
I had always assumed it had to do with some sort of temperature differential as the sun heated the cool rails. Was I right or was it some other rail phenomenon?
Why is everyone focused on the rails, when it is clearly not the rails who make the sound?
OP, the clak clak sound comes from “flat spots” (direct translation from german) on the wheel that happen when high speed trains have to initiate a high power break. On regular track and in most situations, the wheels have anti blocking features, like a car does.
Sometimes these fail, or the track conditions make the wheel simply glide over it, thus scraping flats into it. Sometimes the material is pushed onto other parts of the wheel, and it makes the sound even louder. If the train keeps going now what you hear is the typical clak clak sound.
Why is everyone focused on the rails, when it is clearly not the rails who make the sound?
OP, the clak clak sound comes from “flat spots” (direct translation from german) on the wheel that happen when high speed trains have to initiate a high power break. On regular track and in most situations, the wheels have anti blocking features, like a car does.
Sometimes these fail, or the track conditions make the wheel simply glide over it, thus scraping flats into it. Sometimes the material is pushed onto other parts of the wheel, and it makes the sound even louder. If the train keeps going now what you hear is the typical clak clak sound.
Why is everyone focused on the rails, when it is clearly not the rails who make the sound?
OP, the clak clak sound comes from “flat spots” (direct translation from german) on the wheel that happen when high speed trains have to initiate a high power break. On regular track and in most situations, the wheels have anti blocking features, like a car does.
Sometimes these fail, or the track conditions make the wheel simply glide over it, thus scraping flats into it. Sometimes the material is pushed onto other parts of the wheel, and it makes the sound even louder. If the train keeps going now what you hear is the typical clak clak sound.
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CWR has no or very few joints. To work with the expansion/contraction they take out rail in the summer and add it back in during the winter. Stick rail has more movement and doesn’t require as much adding or removing rail.
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