Snow Day!

Watch: Swartz Creek administrators announce snow day in musical fashion :D It's like they've done this before...for sure, they practiced!

https://www.abc12.com/content/news/W...504999731.html

^ lol!


and today in Chicago, they have to light the trains on fire to keep them running. it's like -20 there right now.

story: https://q13fox.com/2019/01/30/when-i...tracks-on-fire

https://tribkcpq.files.wordpress.com...trip=all&w=770

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When it’s this cold, Chicago sets its train tracks on fire

(CNN) — Chicago residents are a hearty bunch. They know how to keep things moving when the weather turns cold.

But what about when it’s this cold? Like wind-chill-of-50-below-zero cold? Getting around is lot tougher. When that happens, the folks who keep the commuter trains running in the Windy City employ a hot idea: They set the train tracks on fire.

Flames were seen sprouting from the tracks of Chicago’s Metra commuter rail system on Tuesday.

Metra isn’t literally setting the tracks ablaze, spokesman Michael Gillis told CNN. The flames actually come from gas-fed heaters that run alongside the rails and keep them warm. Metra also uses a tubular heating system and hot air blowers to heat up cold track.

“Anytime it’s below freezing were using these,” said Gillis, who said other rail systems in North America use similar systems.

Why? Tracks are affected by extreme cold in two ways.

In some cases the tracks experience what’s called “pull-aparts.” This kind of rail defect occurs when two rails separate at their connection. The extreme cold shrinks the metal and the rails literally pull apart from each other, Metra said in a recent Instagram post. Heating the tracks with fire expands the metal until the two rails can be put back together again.

Railroad switch points can also become clogged with ice and snow in subzero conditions, so the heating system is used to unclog them. Maintenance crews light the heaters by hand and can control the flow of the gas, Metra said. The crew members, working 12-hour shifts, remain in the area when the heating systems are being used so they can monitor the flames.

A few railroad ties are sometimes damaged by the heat, but this method is a lot safer than the one the rail system used to employ to thaw frozen tracks. Crews previously used pots filled with kerosene, stuck them in spaces between the track ties and lit them by hand.

“We all used to carry this stuff. I called it skunk oil,” John Meyer, Metra’s director of engineering, said on the rail system’s website. “We poured it in a 2-gallon can, poured it out, and threw a match in it, and it’d start a fire along all the rails. We’re talking in the mid-’70s. Nowadays you’d get in big trouble doing that.”

Metra says it’s safe to run the trains over the flames because the diesel fuel in the trains “combusts only with pressure and heat, not open flames.”

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:O

"...Metra says it’s safe to run the trains over the flames because the diesel fuel in the trains “combusts only with pressure and heat, not open flames.”

Not a big comfort, is it? I agree...:O

I live in Roselle Il, Cook County, same as Chicago. It’s a little cold, that’s for sure.

We had a snow day yesterday but it was on MY day OFF..so everyone was off as well !!

:(


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We didn't get snow this time this is how the week has gone. Seriously. It was 60 on Monday. It will be 60 tomorrow and over the weekend. In between it's super cold (for us). In the 20's.

https://assets.rbl.ms/13349574/980x.jpg

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

We had a snow day yesterday but it was on MY day OFF..so everyone was off as well !! :(

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RATS! No Fair! :rat: Cold here too (high yesterday was 27*) but nothing like all the northern states got.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

RATS! No Fair! :rat: Cold here too (high yesterday was 27*) but nothing like all the northern states got.

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It's been -3 all day today .. flamin car doors froze shut this morning and after work


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When I was living up north I always wanted a tank with a flame thrower to pull people out of the snow with and melt the ice as I went. Would be fun!

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

We didn't get snow this time this is how the week has gone. Seriously. It was 60 on Monday. It will be 60 tomorrow and over the weekend. In between it's super cold (for us). In the 20's.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...49574/980x.jpg

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Wait, did Drew Cary really say that?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d6d6e1ef89.jpg

Ugh



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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MR Snakes

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d6d6e1ef89.jpg

Ugh



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Looks pretty, but I'm glad I'm not there. I grew up in the stuff...it doesn't take much to remind me. ;)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Looks pretty, but I'm glad I'm not there. I grew up in the stuff...it doesn't take much to remind me. ;)

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It's very pretty as long as you don't have to go outside. Heading out to a benefit here shortly.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...eb0203dc17.jpg

Same angle. Yup, it snows in Maine.


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It snows around the Great Lakes too...I can remember 3' of snow, and much more in drifts. ;) I was a lot shorter then, so it was all the more impressive.