--- title: White Rails Are The Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know... description: Union Pacific Railroad is painting rail tracks white to combat heat-related slowdowns. Continuously welded rails expand significantly in hot weather, forcing... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: White Rails Are The Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know We Needed | daily.dev og:description: Union Pacific Railroad is painting rail tracks white to combat heat-related slowdowns. Continuously welded rails expand significantly in hot weather, forcing... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/y95mXNYJj.png og:image:alt: White Rails Are The Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know We Needed og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # White Rails Are The Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know We Needed **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 17 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Union Pacific Railroad is painting rail tracks white to combat heat-related slowdowns. Continuously welded rails expand significantly in hot weather, forcing trains to slow down and reducing freight capacity. White paint sprayed on the sides of rails can lower temperatures by 11°C (20°F). The technique originated in Italy and is now being adopted in North America and Europe during heat waves. More advanced cooling paints and passive cooling fibers can achieve even greater temperature reductions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do railroads paint rail tracks white? Railroads paint rails white to reduce heat absorption and lower rail temperature, preventing thermal expansion that causes buckling and forces speed restrictions. Union Pacific Railroad found white paint can lower rail temperature by about 11°C (20°F). The technique was pioneered in Italy and has since been adopted in North America and other parts of Europe during heat waves. _Engineers tracking low-tech infrastructure fixes like this can follow similar hacks on daily.dev._ ### How much does white paint reduce rail temperature? White paint applied to the sides of rails can reduce rail temperature by approximately 11°C (20°F), according to Union Pacific Railroad. This cooling effect helps continuously welded rail avoid thermal expansion, buckling, and the speed reductions that hot weather otherwise forces on freight trains, preserving overall system capacity. _Anyone curious about practical heat-mitigation hacks can find more such stories on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@ezpie** · 2 upvotes > boy do I love cho chos! This will be a fun read ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Geothermal Cooling For New York’s Subways](https://daily.dev/posts/geothermal-cooling-for-new-york-s-subways-59hdptzao) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What Europe’s heat wave means for the power grid](https://daily.dev/posts/what-europe-s-heat-wave-means-for-the-power-grid-0mfmvvkwe) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Using the railway network as a flatbed scanner](https://daily.dev/posts/using-the-railway-network-as-a-flatbed-scanner-aljtwgojg) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [State of Rails: How Railway Is Building Infrastructure for AI Agents](https://daily.dev/posts/state-of-rails-how-railway-is-building-infrastructure-for-ai-agents-lhiuyvzxj) · Railway Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"White Rails Are The Infrastructure Hack We Didn’t Know We Needed","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj"},"datePublished":"2026-07-17T02:07:31.045Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:51:23.592Z","description":"Union Pacific Railroad is painting rail tracks white to combat heat-related slowdowns. 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This will be a fun read","datePublished":"2026-07-18T10:11:52.455Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/y95mXNYJj#c-LbsuFIUib","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ezpie","url":"https://daily.dev/ezpie","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/104765117?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/white-rails-are-the-infrastructure-hack-we-didn-t-know-we-needed-y95mxnyjj#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do railroads paint rail tracks white?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Railroads paint rails white to reduce heat absorption and lower rail temperature, preventing thermal expansion that causes buckling and forces speed restrictions. Union Pacific Railroad found white paint can lower rail temperature by about 11°C (20°F). 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