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M-497
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 val ...
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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 ...
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Budd Rail Diesel Car
The Budd Rail Diesel Car, RDC, Budd car or Buddliner is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional diesel locomotive-drawn train with coaches. The cars could be used singly or coupled together in train sets and controlled from the cab of the front unit. The RDC was one of the few DMU trains to achieve commercial success in North America. RDC trains were an early example of self-contained diesel multiple unit trains, an arrangement now in common use by railways all over the world. Budd RDCs were sold to operators in North America, South America, Asia, and Australia. They saw extensive use in the Northeast United States, both on branch lines and in commuter service. As p ...
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General Electric J47
The General Electric J47 turbojet (GE company designation TG-190) was developed by General Electric from its earlier J35. It first flew in May 1948. The J47 was the first axial-flow turbojet approved for commercial use in the United States. It was used in many types of aircraft, and more than 30,000 were manufactured before production ceased in 1956. It saw continued service in the US military until 1978. Packard built 3,025 of the engines under license. Design and development The J47 design used experience from the TG-180/J35 engine which was described by ''Flight'' magazine in 1948 as the most widely used American-conceived turbojet. Overhaul life for the J47 ranged from 15 hours (in 1948) to a theoretical 1,200 hours (625 achievable in practice) in 1956. For example, the J47-GE-23 was rated to run 225 hours time between overhauls. As installed on the F-86F, it experienced one in-flight shutdown every 33,000 hours in 1955 and 1956. Variants ;J47-GE-1:(TG-190A) thrust. ;J4 ...
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Butler, Indiana
Butler is a city in DeKalb County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,684 at the 2010 census. History Butler was platted in 1856 when the railroad was extended to that point. It was likely named for David Butler, a pioneer. Butler was incorporated as a town in 1866, and as a city in 1903. On July 23, 1966, Butler was one of the end points of a record-setting speed run by a New York Central RDC-3, M-497 Black Beetle, modified with a pair of jet engines, as the rail line between it and Stryker, Ohio, was both straight and flat. The car reached a speed of , an American rail speed record that still stands today. The Downtown Butler Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Geography Butler is located at . According to the 2010 census, Butler has a total area of , all land. Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 2,684 people, 951 households, and 668 families living in the city. The population density was . ...
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Stryker, Ohio
Stryker is a village in Williams County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,335 at the 2010 census. History Stryker was platted in 1853. The village was named for John Stryker, a railroad promoter. A post office has been in operation at Stryker since 1855. From 1901 to 1939, Stryker was the operation center for the Toledo and Indiana Railway, an interurban and electric company that began operation between Toledo and Stryker in 1901, with an extension west to Bryan, Ohio, in 1905. The construction of a power plant near the Tiffin River for the electrified railway in 1905 helped bring power to a large portion of northwest Ohio. On July 23, 1966, Stryker was one of the end points of a record-setting speed run by a New York Central RDC-3, M-497 Black Beetle, modified with a pair of jet engines, as the rail line between it and Butler, Indiana, was both straight and flat. The car reached a speed of , an American rail speed record that still stands today. Geography Stry ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 * ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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