Is This Right?

15 million... think what woulda been possible when the transcontinental railroad was built, doubt it cost that much to build the entire thing...back then...

Speed is what the SS is after for sure, they hadda use the original freight line into the airport.

for the Amtrak station, passenger boarded crossing the SS tracks onto the NYC tracks. Theres a sub platform there.

Just for trivia, think East Chicago when they ran in the streets there...double track downtown, perfect interurban style there...

Can you imagine trying to hump (3) GP38's or one Joe thru the stoplights with 100 loaded coal cars behind you? Every time a light goes red, the train stops, and then starts up again. It must've taken 1+ hours to move a coaler thru EC. At least in MC the lights are timed to the train.

To be fair, the Joes probably had superior acceleration compared to what a GP38 would have. The fact that the prime movers need to load up to the speed the throttle designates while supplying the power to the train would probably make them slower than anything electric, which is just pulling the practically unlimited supply of electricity directly from the wire.