It is widely reported that the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, OH, was the result of an overheated wheel bearing. Reading that puts me in mind of an decades-ago experience the other DrC and I had one night driving east on Interstate 80 descending from Donner summit toward Reno.
For a fair stretch, the railroad track runs along relatively close to the highway. There was a freight train moving east, as we were, but our speed was somewhat greater than that of the train.
In the dark we came upon a strange sight. A 3 foot tall steel wheel on a moving freight car was glowing bright-red-hot and throwing sparks as it rolled along.
That was one of the oddest things we've ever seen. I don't know if the train crew was aware of the hot box, probably not.
As a Californian my immediate concern was it would start a forest fire, but apparently it did not. We spent the weekend in Reno and there was no fire when we drove home.
