Anything in a book might as well be on the Moon as regards its usefulness as an illustration to a post on RyPN. Sure, I could scan it, put it up on one of the photo sites, and then link to the image. That's both a moral and statutory violation of copyright. I could provide the cites to its appearance in Scribbins or wherever, but assuredly anyone who actually owns a copy of the book has seen the picture, or looked it up when reading the thread. And the price of many of those 'books' is artificially inflated by the rare-book harpies to be well out of reach of many mere preservationists.

I did not intend my comment to reflect any sort of idea that the Web is the be-all and the end-all of research resources.

Back to the original question:

-I believe during the 614's trips on NJT in the late 1990's, 90 mph was achieved more than once according one crew member.

- Doyle McCormack has told me personally that he had the 4449 up to 87 on the return from the AFT in 1977.

-Al Broadfoot, formerly of the BC Rail Royal Hudson shop, told me that they had the 2860 up to 105 once over in Eastern Canada in the late 1970's on one of there tours.

I will personally attest to that, as long as the speedometer on a certain '70 Pontiac Parisienne was reasonably accurate... in excess of 100 mph, just pacing the train, for many miles. It's just a VERY good thing Highway 43 was very quiet except for the fifty or so railfans chasing the train.

A number of Ontario Provincial Police were lined up on the curve at Winchester, Ontario. Fortunately, they could only pull one car over each and there's safety in numbers.

Heavy road construction between Merrickville and Smiths Falls foiled efforts to catch up. My friend broke a spring on his Ford in that section.

Remember this was the 70s, folks, before lecturing... it was a very different world then!

:-)

Steve Hunter

Hi,

I recall timing the milepost riding on the Southern Excursions. And sometimes the elapsed time seemed off. It was many years later that I discovered that the "mileposts" by the railroad could sometimes be as short as 4000 feet or as much as 6000 feet.

Reading the PRR track charts I recieved from family members was very enlightening. Some changed due to line relocations to reduce grade or curvature.

Doug vV

Bob Claytor was known to push 611 past track speed when on flat good track. There is even video of her running in excess of 75mph in mid-Ohio in 1984.