Fastest train in USA

The town of Bryan Ohio is located in the northwest corner of the Buckeye state. It has a small train depot that still operates as an Amtrak station. In the parking lot is a historical marker that recalls the fastest train in America. The sixty-seven miles of railroad track from Toledo, Ohio to Butler, Indiana is the longest multiple track straight railroad line in the world. It was on this stretch of track that the New York Central Railroad Company tested the feasibility of operating high-speed passenger service.

In 1966, the New York Central Railroad modified a passenger rail car. They added an aerodynamic cowling around the bottom and on the top two jet engines for power. The engines were second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, originally used as boosters for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker intercontinental bomber. The railcar M-497 was nicknamed the Black Beetle by the press and tested on July 23, 1966. The railcar with the jet engines strapped to the roof reached a maximum speed of 183.68 mph, an American rail speed record that still stands today.

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Convivial · 26-30, F

67 miles of straight track...pfft... That's nothing... We have a section that's 600 miles straight across the Nullarbor lol

NinaTina · 26-30, F

@Convivial what year was it made

Convivial · 26-30, F

@NinaTina I'm guessing here but probably very late 1890s or early 1900s.... Part of the east west tail connection across Oz... Please take those dates with a grain of salt...I really don't know

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Convivial I took a "virtual flight" courtesy of Google Earth along it.

The single straight is about 360 miles - the actual number given on a marker stone at the start - but still the world's longest. Surveying the route and building the railway across the desert was a remarkable achievement.

There are a few ballast sidings, all with names, and a spur to what might be a quarry, but otherwise it is pretty well featureless. It is roughly paralleled by a dirt road, which must give a very tiring and likely very lonely journey for anyone driving across Nullarbor Plain. (The Latinate name = "No Trees".)

East of the straight, the railway is surprisingly sinuous, I think due to hills.