As I was driving down Interstate-4 this afternoon, I was passed by a CSX work truck. It was outfitted with the über-cool hyrail technology, allowing the truck to be driven on regular city streets and with the push of a button, on rail as well.

It reminded me of the first time I saw such a vehicle. As I was approaching a railroad crossing, the indicator lights came alive and the stop arms lowered into place. Instead of a whistle and locomotive, a lone pick-up truck rode by on the tracks.

At the time I thought that was extraordinary, but I later learned that these vehicles are used all the time. In fact, Union Pacific has a fleet of larger, delivery truck-sized vehicles with enhanced hyrail used to detect possible trouble on the tracks. Filled with sensor equipment and computers, these rail detector trucks roam the country inspecting about 145,500 miles of track a year.