Loading ...That was awesome film of the Zephyr world record run! I knew of the run, but I did not know that film of it still existed! Today the original Zephyr is ‘stuffed & mounted’ on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=66256
This was a small locomotive by todays standards. The engineer’s cab was very cramped up front.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=66255
The diesel engine only took up half the body behind the engineer, and the rear half of the “locomotive” was passenger space! This was a glorified railcar, with a couple more passenger cars fix attached as a single trainset.
One of the more important, but forgotten aspects of this run was the quality of the track! This was old, jointed rails on the mainline, and the track crews had to maintain them to a high standard of ‘level’ with no sagging joints, and heavy, firm ballast. The train’s speed is pretty much limited by the quality of the track it runs on.
Today the last remaining E5 locomotive pulls the Nebraska Zephyr 5-car trainset at the Illinois Rail Museum at Union, IL. Still in operating condition! http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=482257