"EXTREME MACHINES" - "WHEELS of STEEL" 3/5

This program focuses on the fastest, largest, and tallest trains. We take a brief look at the steam era -- at the Mallard and the huge Big Boys of the Union Pacific railways and a more detailed look at the trains of today -- in particular the French TGV with its top speed of 320 mph. We investigate breaking systems, on-board computer systems and the latest in hi-tech tracks. We show some of the spectacular train crashes and disasters across time and take the audience on a time-lapse trip from London to Paris. Finally, we look at plans for the future with NASA's Maglifter concept -- a launch lift for tomorrow's space train.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Ferrocarriles
• Locomotoras
• Mexico
• Rail

[WhyAyeMann]

listen to that little steam engine!

[BigUnitBeef]

I can't wait until 3985 is done with it's rebuild......

[Nedearb1]

at 0:10, challenger is like I run again!

[trainguy3985]

i've been up in the cab of the challenger when it came to kansas in fall 2010.

[UAL012]

I'm loving what I've seen about Challenger and 4449. There are some GREAT videos that show those 2 locos at full power. I do have to say that they're wrong in this show when they say 3985 is the sole surviving Challenger. There is another one on static display in North Platte, Nebraska. It's #3977

[geomodelrailroader]

this may be old be today we the US have high speed rail on the NEC the ACELA Express pulls the fastest trains in the world

[kaiieeyor]

16 hours of descend is insane

[intercityrailpal]

@lukebccb 300 maybe more than 270 but not by much. Also depends on what area your studing. 3 C would have been a prefect start. But the Ohio Convienence Store Industry lobby lead the fight to stop it and won. Now you can expect to pay up to $5 a gallon for gas from those stores. Surprize, surprize! We will get 3 C, but in the future, it will cost billions more. I still expect the Republicans to bring back the draft for the wars for oil. If Korea starts up, gas should jump 25 cents a gallon!

[lukebccb]

@intercityrailpal: Gee I don't know where you're getting your numbers from but the population density of France is about 300 person sq/mile while the population density of Ohio is about 270 persons sq/mile.

Last time I checked 300 is a higher number than 270.

[BigUnitBeef]

@AlcoholicSemenStain.........n­o way. 3985 is back on the rails and they have no intentions of defacing this old lady with such a poor idea. UP has kicked around the idea of pulling one of it's better display bigboys (namely one in California) and converting it to an oil burner as they did 3985. But such a similar trail failed in the 40's when they tried before and UP had so many brush fires from 3985 when it was burning coal that it won't happen unless they can find a way to change it over.

[AlcoholicSemenStain]

@BigUnitBeef

I heard they were going to rebuild it as a bigboy...

[AlcoholicSemenStain]

Holy MONKEY!!!!