Long Island Rail Road uses gas heaters at Jamaica Station so the railroad track switches don’t freeze in winter



    by jmike1256

    26 Comments

    1. I’m surprised there aren’t more induction heaters for rails. I would’ve thought it’d be easier to have two electrical systems than have a gas and electric hybrid system

    2. IsChristianAwake on

      Why isn’t this common practice across all regions with harsher winter seasons?

      Seems very useful.

    3. They do that in Chicago too, and it really tripped me up the first time I saw it after I moved there.

    4. This is one of those times that makes me think there’s gotta be a better way to do this. It just looks silly and underdeveloped this way.

    5. At the end of the line in Port Jeff they use these small pots that look like old cauldrons. At least they did a few years back when I lived there. 

    6. Emergency_Hawk_6947 on

      As a commuter of LIRR who has passed through Jamaica station thousands of times this is pretty cool, TIL.

    7. This is pretty common. When I worked for the railroad, one guy had the flamethrower and another guy had a sledgehammer to get switches to switch. 

    8. The thing I hate about this is that like 90% of the heat is wasted, just like a gas stove (well more like 40% in that case but you get the idea). Feels like induction or even just heating elements would be better here.

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