Fastest Steam engine ever in revenue service?

[CopCarSS]

QUOTE: Originally posted by daveklepper

141 mph seems increadable.

That takes some HP. 9C1 Caprices/Impala SS's came stock with 260 HP from the factory, and 141 was about their top end in stock form. That's around 118 HP per ton! Granted, its comparing apples to avocados, but you'd still need a lot of HP for that. Then you'd have to put it to the track without breaking the running gear or the track.

[jockellis]

G'day, Y'all,
I just remembered that Clark Sims of Little Engines told me that the speed record for a 1/8 scale steam locomotive is over 60 mph. Times eight, that is a scale speed of 480 mph. So who knows how fast the big ones will really go?
Jock Ellis
Cumming, GA US of A

[vsmith]

from the newswire, just a little taste of how far down the ladder the US has fallen when it comes to rail transit..


"...New Japanese bullet train to cruise at almost 225 mph

TOKYO - East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) on Friday unveiled a new shinkansen - bullet train - in the town of Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, that will run at speeds up to 223 mph, which may make it the world's fastest train, according to a story in the Japan Times. JR East aims to put the new bullet train - named Fastech - into service on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line in 2011, when a new section opens between Hachinohe and Shin-Aomori stations in Aomori Prefecture.

The new bullet train is expected to surpass the French national railway's high-speed TGV and West Japan Railway's Sanyo shinkansen train, which run at a speeds of just over 186 mph.

The train is equipped with a new air-brake system that deploys in the event of an earthquake or other emergency. The retractable cat-ear-shaped spoilers that can protrude from the roof are expected to help slow the train more quickly than conventional brakes. Each train has only one pantograph to reduce noise, down from two each on the current bullet trains. The test runs between Sendai and Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, will be conducted at a maximum speed of 251 mph. ..."


California is about the same size as Japan, yet we can't even get Sacramento to even think beyond the next fiscal year...or their next election.[V]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

The train is equipped with a new air-brake system that deploys in the event of an earthquake or other emergency. The retractable cat-ear-shaped spoilers that can protrude from the roof are expected to help slow the train more quickly than conventional brakes.

Does anyone think these earthquake brakes would do any good?