An inertia starter would be very handy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROnb5ouBjNc

Yep, I forgot about those.

Doesn't our heart use electricity to fire the muscles?

To an extent... If you consider the electricity generated through the signals from the brain through our nervous system as the power source. But we aren't talking about Cmdr. Data here! Blood, pumped through the heart, circulates to veins on the surface of the heart so oxygen can be delivered to the heart muscle. Muscles use oxygen and glucose sugars, processed in the mitochondria to generate the necessary materials (if I remember correctly, the molecule is called HTP) needed to fire the axioms, which contract the muscle fibers. Said fibers relax when a signal from the nerves indicates that the muscle can stop contracting. Every cell of the body use mitochondria to facilitate the creation of HTP (which when expended, becomes a compound called HDP, which is completely unusable on basis of the energy potential) for use by the organelles (the organelles serve as the "organs" of the cell, and help determine the function of a given cell). This brief overview was brought to you by the lessons Ms. Athena Vangos through her Honors Biology course at Leicester High School.
Dylan Lambert
Honors Biology Student

If my own brain still works - the molecule in question is ATP (adinosine tri phosphate) which contributes an ELECTRON in the reaction. A moving electron creates a magnetic field, i.e. electro-magnetism - electricity of a sort.

Bone up for your SAT Dylan - you will be able to commute to Harvard from Springfield.

There is something called the "Suspension of disbelief" which is necessary for enjoying a play or movie. If you ain't got it, youze not gonna like it......

Yeah, but there's only so much belief one can suspend. I can buy into all kinds of fictional premises, but the idea that the laws of physics are suspended by someone for a reason nobody could possibly fathom (really, what possibly could a person get from doing that, even if you could, unless your goal was to destory society with no gain for you), is at best a moronic premise.
And coupled with the fact that the same people who brought you, "Lost" put this show on, means you couldn't make me watch this at gunpoint. That show drove me bonkers, I kept waiting for any of it to be explained and hardly any ever did. Whatever season it was, when they showed some of them getting off the island at the end of that season, I looked at my wife at the end of that episode and asked, "Can I say we're done with this show as of now?" And she looked so releived and said, "Absolutely!"
I like sci-fi and am willing to buy into almost anything for a future premise or one that takes place on another world somewhere else. But this?
Nah, count me out. Even if the show was primarily about a locomotive crew after something like this happened, I wouldn't watch it.

I'm too cheap to pay for cable or satellite (and there hasn't been anything worth watching for years anyway, at least as new stuff), but I did look up the promo for the "Soul Train" episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYR_UJPTq9o

I have to ask, how fast did the TV people run this locomotive? How well did bearings and things hold up? (I do know, from a previous comment, that the locomotive is actually not operational and may have been pushed by a disguised diesel.)

Anyway, I hope the engine held up well, and that the South Carolina museum got a nice bit of change for the rental.

Now, if only we could figure how to get a really decent TV series or movie franchise made, and have it make a bit of money. . .

"Come ride the little train that is rolling down the tracks to the junction......."

Hey, don't laugh. Imagine what you could "get away" with in today's, ermm, "more enlightened and sophisticated" (i.e. more risque) television environment, with more "steamy" scenes......

Would that be an upper or lower berth you'd like Mr & Mrs Smith?

As an aside: Back in the 80's on a turista line that shall remain nameless, the President of that line proposed a "Brothel Train". No, it wasn't the Nevada Northern. But if you had a spare Pullman car lying around - nothing illegal with renting out the space.... eh?

The complex at WRM includes a former bus terminal used to feed nearby towns to the railroad. After service ended, it was subdivided into many small rooms, and renamed "The Hump", with its ladies serving customers from the nearby air base.

Brings a whole new meaning to "NO HUMPING". ;-)

Well now I'm glad I missed out on an hours sleep last night to watch this lame excuse of a show. 30 minutes of the villians cliche' backstory, 20 minutes of the dumbest "rebels" I've ever seen fighting, and 5 minutes of the most anticlimatic train chase I've ever seen.

After about twenty minutes of the heros bitching with each other over how blowing up the train will kill the kid they're after I was literally screaming at the screen "if you wanna stop the train blow up the tracks dumbasses!"

Did anyone else notice that the "evil governments" little logo looks alot like the old Monon logo???

I don't watch TV, so I haven't seen the show. But I gather from the discussion here that the whole premise of the show is fairly preposterous.

A more believable view is expressed by author James Howard Kuntsler in his novel "World Made By Hand" and its sequel, "The Witch of Hebron." Before turning his pen to fiction, Kuntsler wrote "The Long Emergency," a non-fiction consideration of the peak oil theory.

Really, really bad TV. Now I know why I don't watch that stuff. It sort of reminded me of a few guys who put some logs in the firebox and run the locomotive on air.

The lady who is trying to blow up the train wanted to kill everyone onboard not stop it. They seem to miss the point that a steam locomotive has a limmited range and needs to be refilled with water.