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Who wouldn't want to ride behind 150 mph steam?

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[quote user="Last Chance"]The reason the T1 4-4-4-4 was built was to reduce the amount of mass on those wheels and cut down on the hammering of the rails.It worked well enough to get into a 4-4-6-4 or other engines.There is one little problem, getting to 150 is not a problem. STAYING at 150 is the problem.Ive been at 150+ in cars (In another lifetime) and frankly at those speeds you need to plan your stopping several miles before your destination. The maintaince was a headache at those speeds.[/quote]OK, I'll nitpick a little now too. Even the T1 pounded on the rails to some extent. The difference between the rod locomotives and diesel-electrics is that the pounding is ELIMINATED and offers steady, even traction.I will agree too, though, that staying at high speeds with steam would be a challenge if only for steaming capacity. Could a re-vamped "modernized" steamer keep a full head for six hours running at 150mph? I'd sure like to see it. One of the P.E.s or M.E.s out there could give a better idea, but I believe the steam volume required for that kind of operation would be huge.Another thought... Steam is not dead, just buried alive in history. The problem with energy ineffiency is the inefficiency of heat transfer and retention. You can't tell me every single practical possibility to solve that problem has been thought of and discared.
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