This 1960s Jet Train Is Still America's Fastest Locomotive
Embarrassing.
In the mid-1960's, New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel was exploring ways to make trains run safer, cheaper, but most importantly: faster. And, clearly, the most logical means of accomplishing all three of these objectives was to strap a pair of Air Force surplus jet engines to the roof of a prototype high-speed locomotive, creating the world's fastest self-propelled train. Wait, what?
Built in 1966 by the New York Central Railroad corporation, the M-497 Black Beetle experimental jet-powered locomotive was the first, but surprisingly not the last, of its kind. The Black Beetle utilized an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC-3) with an added, streamlined front cowling covering the RDC-3's conventionally blunted nose, and a pair of second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, which had previously been employed as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber, that Wetzel had acquired from the USAF.
http://gizmodo.com/this-1960s-jet-train-is-still-americas-fastest-locomo-1526862324