(By Greg Rourke) – High speed rail is and area where the rest of the world has it all over us. All over Europe and Asia trains regularly run at over 180 MPH. In France and Japan there is regular service at just under 200 MPH. The Maglev train in China runs at 268 MPH , and has gone as fast as 311 MPH. I took the liberty of converting these from kilometers per hour for all of us in the USA, Burma and Liberia where we can’t be bothered with the metric system.
We’re catching on, slowly. We have a few high speed lines under construction, and a few lines with speeds over 120 MPH, notably on the North East Corridor. The record for the fastest train in the United States dates from 1966, at 183.68 MPH.
The New York Central railroad wanted to see the feasibility of running fast trains over existing tracks. They decided a Budd RDC-3 would be the test mule. The Budd RDC cars were designed for commuter rail service, as a self contained unit. They were powered by Detroit Diesel 6-110 engines, some had two depending on the configuration. RDC-3 models carried 45 passengers as well as cargo. The Detroits weren’t going to shove 113,000 pounds very fast, so other power had to be sourced. Why not a brace of General Electric J47-19 jets? They basically welded them to the roof, added a sorta kinda streamlined nose, and off they went.
They used more conventional power to bring M-497, nicknamed Black Beetle, out to Stryker, Ohio. The line was selected because it was arrow straight, level, and in good condition. On July 23, 1966 they pointed M-497 towards Butler, Indiana and lit off the jets. A good portion of the line runs parallel to a highway, imagine the folks heading over to Grandmas house when a screaming jet powered train blew past them at 180 MPH.
This whole deal was an engineering exercise. Strapping a few military surplus jets to the roof of trains wasn’t considered practical for some reason, they wanted to see how existing rail would hold up to high speeds. They ended up with a bunch of useful data, and then didn’t do anything with it. The New York Central was close to merging with other railroads, who apparently weren’t interested in going fast. The jets and shovel nose were removed and the M-497 continued in normal service until 1977, when it was scrapped. What happened to the jet engines? They were repurposed as snow blowers.
High speed lines are being constructed in several spots in the US, expect that 50 year old record to fall soon.
So it went 1984 mph ? Probably never got stopped until it was in Indiana.
Imagine if these weirdos had been put into service!
Trains belting along at over 300mph on four jet engines merrily incinerating everything in their wake and leaving smouldering heaps of farm animals and human passers by dotted around the rail network!
You should have bought some British HS125 train sets – ours are still providing passengers with good service after decades and would have done the same for you. But I can’t help picturing a locomotive with ten blown and injected Hemis belting along at 200 MPH and using parachutes to slow down when approaching stations….
I think you’re missing a decimal point somewhere.
1984 mph is approaching Mach 3 (at sea level on a standard day).
Outstanding video…backyard engineering at it’s finest !!!
So it’s 183.68 MPH not 1984.00 MPH, good eye catching headline though 😉
The British were running 125.88 MPH in 1938 “ON STEAM”.
Would be an unforgettalble ride. Turned out alot better than some of my projects, lol.
I didn’t need to double check the “Went 1984 MPH” assertion to know it was beyond impossible – unless the train plummeted off the world’s highest cliff – and even then I don’t think it would attain that speed.
Sweet for the time but …..
high speed rail (200+) requires dedicated lines -no crossings , no freight sharing etc .
US system is too old to do this – would require new lines – not going to happen