To our esteemed Mr. Mitchell I would like to say....NEVER say NEVER!!!!
Ross Rowland

I do stand corrected, It dawned on me today, daaaa
The balance issue, and cost of huge drivers is one of the reasons for the heisler style. a flat 6 or 8 with (insert evil laugh) poppet valves, standard type locomotive boiler, supertuned superheater, feedwater heated by a nitrous oxide/residual fuel afterburner, and potentially also used as a "flash heater" if we need that little bit extra
(using the waste steam to boost, rather than vacumn, leaves lots of raw fuel in the smokebox)
this locomotive would be much more usable than a one time shot, it has to make the rounds to all the museums that helped

this record, when broken, will be in the US
and it won't take a lottery, just creative engineering in the level of Stephenson, Forney, Baldwin, Mitchell I...

I'll bet they were "nuts" too

dr dodge

Now looka here! Let's spell the names of my great-great-great uncles or cousins or....(actually no traceable relation whatsoever) George and Robert Stephenson correctly. They contributed significantly to the development of the steam locomotive and valve gear that bears their family name!! And it isn't spelled with a "V".

done

dr dodge 0

everyone else 2

Give me ATSF 2925,eight heavyweight cars,and the railroad between Dodge City and Newton.....I'll break 120.....

Give me one of those long, lean prairies and 4 lightweights and the same track and I'll beat you!

dave

LOL! Glorious! Too bad we really can't have a go at it...it would indeed be fun.....

Even if we never got over 45MPH!

Great news about TSRR - keep up the fine work.

dave

Thanks for the kind words....after the mayhem of last year this year is looking to be pretty good. stay tuned..

Worlds fastest steam locomotive in 1905. Scroll down towards the bottom. It is the second listing above the links. Newer speed records are also listed:

http://cprr.org/Museum/Locomotives/index.html

Without getting into the endlessly-circular debate about whether or not this 1905 record can be considered official or certified (international community says "no" because it was timed with watches from not-necessarily-accurately-placed mileposts as opposed to with scientific instruments such as a dynamometer car).........

The photo is of PRR 8063, a PRR E7 Atlantic renumbered by the PRR to "7002" to replicate the E3s that made the high-speed run in 1905. The changeover was well documented, and the "7002" survives in converted form at the RR Museum of Pa.

Lesson of the day: Don't believe everything you see on the internet, even if it's from an official railroad website. (As if the posts here from a couple days ago weren't enough of a reminder....)

I would have to agree with Andy J that given any locomotive design of the day has topped out in the 120 to 126 mph range, this will be the limit for reciprocating steam within say 10% or so if you add the benefits of modern technology and better track before parts start flying off.

Having said that, back in the 30s, the LMS railway in the UK came up with an interesting design dubbed the Turbomotive which, as one offs go, was relatively successful. It looked very much like a conventional locomotive but had a long turbine on one side for forward, and a smaller one on the other for reverse. It would be interesting to see what this design could do in a high speed application.

Jason

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/L ... turbom.htm[/url]