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Fastest Steam engine ever in revenue service?
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The Scotty's Famous LA to Chicago dash.. was that the one where a man walked into the railroad and demanded to be taken across the road to chicago as fast as the most stone hearted and lacking of nerve engine crews can take him? <br /> <br />If this is the trip that we both are referring to then I quite thing that for overall trip this might have been one for the record books. <br /> <br />One excerpt I recall was the passengers gave up trying to have a meal in the diner and instead spent the night holding on for dear life as the train hurtled thru arizona. <br /> <br />Another excerpt indicated that the engineer and firemen were selected for thier absolute disregard for caution and thier extreme intimate knowledge of what turns out to be every foot of track they ran over. <br /> <br />Something I wonder if it still exists in today's railroad climate. <br /> <br />I have spent much of my early years reaching for the 100 mph mark and spent much time at or above it on certain stretches of interstate in this nation. That is fast. But in today's climate those days are done forever. Also my advancing age prevents me from effectivly controlling a vehicle that fast for a long period of time. <br /> <br />I wonder about what the engine crew must have had to endure... <br /> <br />Cinders being sand blasted into thier faces? Hurricane force winds roaring thru the cab that might be rocking wildy 15 feet above the ground? If not rocking; maybe savagely hunting from one side to the other... how did the crews stay on? Did they have harnesses to keep them tied to the seats? Did they not get exhausted faster and need to be changed out more often? <br /> <br />But in the days of steam with it's written orders and older method of control the signals time table etc ... regular service at 100 or more was truly extrodinary. <br /> <br />I have also been waiting for the modern folk to jump onto this thread with true high speed such as the TGV or the Bullet. <br /> <br />One more thing.. the Oil can burn cleanly with greater heat production and use the entire firebox. You could raise water to boiling to make steam way faster with oil than with coal. However practically both fuels did the job well. <br /> <br />But Nuclear power with it's metals used as fuel beats all in ability to raise steam. Too bad we will never see nuclear engines. How fast they would have gone I wonder.
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