White Rails are the Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know We Needed

Modern railroad lines are continuously welded into long stretches, and in hot weather, that thermal expansion forces trains to slow down significantly, reducing freight capacity. Per Hackaday, Union Pacific tested a simple solution: white paint. Spraying the rails white reduced temperatures by eleven degrees Celsius—roughly twenty degrees Fahrenheit. The technique isn't new; Italy has been using it for many years. Even more advanced passive cooling materials, including fiber-based formulations, can push performance further by cooling tracks below ambient temperature.

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