by Noel Weaver
Matt Johnson wrote:rohr turbo wrote:Still the fastest non-electric train Amtrak ever ran in revenue service, I believe.That would be the UA Turbo, which hit 170.8 mph near Princeton Junction on a test run. The Rohr units were officially rated for 125 mph. I read somewhere that they could top 150 but that's unconfirmed. Even if so, still slower than the United Aircraft trains.
I remember the UAC scrap pile very well. It had 6 turbo engines 5 of which were used for power and one for head end power. Sometimes when the thing finally got to New Haven we would have a total of 3 of them running, two for power. We got to Boston but we had to baby it sort of and we did not make track speed sometimes either. I remember a couple of specifici trips one of which they ran a 3 car standard train in place of the UAC and we made better time with the E-8 and three coaches than we could with the turbo. Another time the train arrived New Haven with only 2 turbos running, they annulled the train right there and used us to deadhead it to Fields Point. We limped along although we eventually got there and I got to do some new trackage in Providence. We ended up deadheading back to New Haven on our regular return train from Providence. I shed no tears on their passing either. The sooner they scrap these things the sooner this topic will end, I hope.
Noel Weaver