HackerWhy Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints
Practical EngineeringYouTube ↗
Further reading 1
Caption notes
Continuously welded rails still develop thermal stress. A rod restrained at its midpoint demonstrates how support spacing alters buckling, before the presenter relates that behavior to ties, ballast and neutral temperature.
Archived captions (transcription method unspecified) ↗Original passages · 2
if it’s hotter than the neutral temperature, the rail experiences compressive stress.restrain the rod at the centerpoint, effectively halving its length.