Soul of the Sixties

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The Cavern, Liverpool, 1962 - The Beatles do a Train Song ...

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My baby says she's trav'ling on the one after 909,
I said move over honey I'm travelling on that line.
I said move over once, move over twice,
Come on baby don't be cold as ice.
I said I'm trav'ling on the one after 909.​

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And on the topic of trains, the Sixties also gave us the M-497 Jet Train ...

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In the 1960s, railroad engineers with New York Central Railroad built a high-speed train with jet engines they salvaged from an Air Force bomber. They attached two GE J-47-19 engines to the roof of a stock commuter car and dubbed the train the M-497.

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On July 23, 1966, they sent their creation down a straight section of Ohio tracks ...

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It reached a speed of 183 miles per hour, setting a U.S. rail speed record that still stands today.

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You sure it didn't start breaking apart at around 35 miles an hour?

 

I read that ... ' In 1966, New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel and his team boarded a specially modified Buddliner rail-car. Bolted to the roof were two GE J47-19 jet engines - they went from Butler, Indiana, to Stryker, Ohio, at almost 184 mph, piloting the experimental vehicle into the record books as the fastest jet-powered train. Don had to have both a railroad engineer license and a pilot's license to be able to operate this jet car.'

Here is 16mm footage from the time :

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Thanks Gadget

 

Thanks for that bit of technological history. I never knew or even heard of an attempt to make a "jet" train. Very cool, thanks gadget. Oh and thanks to everyone else for the memory joggers about much of the other 60's happenings...I was in my teens then.

 

I was in my twenty's, Jerk. Just joking around.

 

Also married with 2 kids.

 

Of course, back then, pollution was not such a large item on the agenda......

 

It must have been a miracle the thing did not derail then.