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M-497 Black Beetle
The M-497 (nicknamed Black Beetle by the press) was an experimental jet-powered railcar test bed of the New York Central Railroad, developed and tested in 1966 in the United States. Two second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, originally used as boosters for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker intercontinental bomber, were mounted atop an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car, an RDC-3 of coach and baggage-mail configuration which had received a streamlined front cowling. The construct was then successfully sent on test runs over the existing tracks between Butler, Indiana, and Stryker, Ohio. The line had been chosen for its arrow-straight layout and good condition, but otherwise unmodified track. On July 23, 1966, the car reached a speed of , an American rail speed record that still stands today. Even with this spectacular performance, and even though it had been built relatively cheaply, using existing parts, the project was not considered viable commercially. The railroad gathered v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine (that drives the compressor). The compressed air from the compressor is heated by burning fuel in the combustion chamber and then allowed to expand through the turbine. The turbine exhaust is then expanded in the propelling nozzle where it is accelerated to high speed to provide thrust. Two engineers, Frank Whittle in the United Kingdom and Hans von Ohain in Germany, developed the concept independently into practical engines during the late 1930s. Turbojets have poor efficiency at low vehicle speeds, which limits their usefulness in vehicles other than aircraft. Turbojet engines have been used in isolated cases to power vehicles other than aircraft, typically for attempts on land speed records. Where vehicles are "turbine-powere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The department's mission is "to develop and coordinate policies that will provide an efficient and economical national transportation system, with due regard for need, the environment, and the national defense." History Prior to the creation of the Department of Transportation, its functions were administered by the under secretary of commerce for transportation. In 1965, Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency (predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA), suggested to President Lyndon B. Johnson that transportation be elevated to a cabinet-level post, and that the FAA be folded into the DOT. It was established by Congress in the Department of Transportation Act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Locomotives
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies. A child may carry out basic experiments to understand how things fall to the ground, while teams of scientists may take years of systematic investigation to advance their understanding of a phenomenon. Experiments and other types of hands-on activities are very important to student learning in the science classroom. Experiments can raise test scores and help a student become more engaged and interested in the material they are learning, especially when used over time. Experiments can vary from personal and informal natural comparisons (e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-speed Trains Of The United States
High Speed or high-speed may refer to: Films * ''High Speed'' (1917 film), starring Jack Mulhall and Fritzi Ridgeway * ''High Speed'' (1920 film), an American drama directed by Charles Miller * ''High Speed'' (1924 film), featuring Herbert Rawlinson and Carmelita Geraghty * ''High Speed'' (1932 film), an American film starring Buck Jones * ''High Speed'' (1986 film), a French film directed by Monique Dartonne and Michel Kaptur * ''High Speed'', a 2002 British-Italian film starring Paul Nicholls Games * ''High Speed'' (pinball), a 1986 pinball game ** '' The Getaway: High Speed II'', a 1992 pinball game * ''High Speed'' (video game), a pinball video game based on Steve Ritchie's 1986 pinball machine Music * ''High Speed E.P.'', a 1997 release by PAX, a side project of the German band X Marks the Pedwalk * "High Speed", a song by 2Pac and Outlawz from their 1999 album ''Still I Rise'' * "High Speed", a song by Coldplay from their 2000 album ''Parachutes'' Other uses * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Turbine Locomotives Of The United States
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or compound molecules made from a variety of atoms (e.g. carbon dioxide). A gas mixture, such as air, contains a variety of pure gases. What distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles. This separation usually makes a colourless gas invisible to the human observer. The gaseous state of matter occurs between the liquid and plasma states, the latter of which provides the upper temperature boundary for gases. Bounding the lower end of the temperature scale lie degenerative quantum gases which are gaining increasing attention. High-density atomic gases super-cooled to very low temperatures are classified by their statistical behavior as either Bose gases or Fermi gases. For a comprehensive listi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LIMRV
A hovertrain is a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, and the conventional railway bed with a paved road-like surface, known as the ''track'' or ''guideway''. The concept aims to eliminate rolling resistance and allow very high performance, while also simplifying the infrastructure needed to lay new lines. Hovertrain is a generic term, and the vehicles are more commonly referred to by their project names where they were developed. In the UK they are known as tracked hovercraft, in the US they are tracked air-cushion vehicles. The first hovertrain was developed by Jean Bertin (1917-1975) in France, where they were marketed as the Aérotrain before being abandoned by the French government. Hovertrains were seen as a relatively low-risk and low-cost way to develop high-speed inter-city train service, in an era when conventional rail seemed stuck to speeds around or less. By the late 1960s, major development efforts were under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turbojet Train
A turbojet train is a train powered by turbojet engines. Like a jet aircraft, but unlike a gas turbine locomotive, the train is propelled by the jet thrust of the engines, rather than by its wheels. Only a handful of jet-powered trains have been built, for experimental research in high-speed rail. Turbojet engines have been built with the engine incorporated into a railcar combining both propulsion and passenger accommodation rather than as separate locomotives hauling passenger coaches. As turbojet engines are most efficient at high speeds, the experimental research has focused in applications for high-speed passenger services, rather than the heavier trains (with more frequent stops) used for freight services. M-497 The first attempt to use turbojet engines on a railroad was made in 1966 by the New York Central Railroad (NYCR), a company with operations throughout the Great Lakes region. They streamlined a Budd Rail Diesel Car, added two General Electric J47-19 jet engine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Blower
A snow blower or snow thrower is a machine for removing snow from an area where it is problematic, such as a driveway, sidewalk, roadway, railroad track, ice rink, or runway. The commonly used term "snow blower" is a misnomer, as the snow is moved using an auger or impeller instead of being blown (by air). It can use either electric power (line power or battery), or a gasoline or diesel engine to throw snow to another location or into a truck to be hauled away. This is in contrast with the action of snow plows, which push snow to the front or side. Typically, the snow is discharged to one side. Snow blowers range from the very small, capable of removing only a few inches (a few more cm) of light snow in an path, to the very large, mounted onto heavy-duty winter service vehicles and capable of moving wide, or wider, swaths of heavy snow up to deep. Snow blowers can generally be divided into two classes: single-stage and two-stage. On a single-stage snow blower, the auger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. The federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially-profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. After railroad regulations were lifted by the 4R Act and the Staggers Act, Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was privatized in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts (a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penn Central
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad, Pennsylvania, New York Central Railroad, New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads), all united by heavy service into the New York metropolitan area and (to a lesser extent) New England and Chicago. The new company failed barely two years after formation, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time. The Penn Central's railroad assets were nationalized into Conrail along with the other bankrupt northeastern roads; its real estate and insurance holdings successfully Reorganization, reorganized into American Premier Underwriters. History Pre-merger The Penn Central railroad system developed in response to challenges facing Northeast United States, northeaste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metroliner (train)
The ''Metroliners'' were extra-fare high speed trains between Washington, D.C. and New York City which operated from 1969 to 2006. They were briefly first operated by Penn Central Transportation (successor to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which originally ordered the equipment), then by Amtrak for 35 years. Service originally ran with Budd Metroliners, self-powered electric multiple unit cars designed for high-speed service. These proved unreliable and were replaced with locomotive-hauled trains in the 1980s. The trains had reserved business-class and first-class seating. The fastest trips between New York's Pennsylvania Station and Washington, D.C.'s Union Station were scheduled for 2.5 hours, though some midday trains around 1980 had schedules as long as 4 hours. Amtrak replaced ''Metroliner'' service with the high-speed ''Acela Express'', which runs up to in revenue service. The first ''Acela Express'' trains ran in 2000, but due to equipment difficulties they did not fully r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal. The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968, the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken-up in 1999, and portions of its system were transferred to CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage. Extensive trackage existed in the states of New York, Pennsyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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