CHICAGO — If you have yet to see this video posted to Facebook from Chicago’s ABC affiliate, please don’t throw a shoe at your screen.
Someone with ABC posted a video recording of Metra crews standing near a diamond with one rail lit on fire. ABC’s original caption was: “WINTER IN CHICAGO! Setting the tracks on fire to make sure they don’t freeze – so trains can keep moving!”
ABC later amended its post to read as follows: “WINTER IN CHICAGO! Setting the tracks on fire to combat the extreme cold – so trains can keep moving!”
Trains News Wire contacted Metra to confirm what most Trains readers suspect: railroaders were heating a rail to expand it and fix it after it had pulled apart in cold weather at “Mayfair” crossing where the UP Northwest intersects with Milwaukee North lines.
The original post was still online as of late Friday, Jan. 6.
