I don't think that's normal...

Going to get Lisa from work tonight, I noticed that the train tracks which run by our house appeared to be on fire.

Getting a closer look as I drove, it looked like specific sections of track had very evenly spaced flames dancing along the rails, then breaking, then more flames, then another dead area, etx.

Is this normal? Nobody seemed to be panicking, and in fact a train went down the adjacent set of tracks without seeming to be concerned. Lisa suggested they might have been trying to de-ice the tracks, but I'm not certain...