That first train was definitely over the 110 limit for Heritage cars. Back in the day they would run them wide open to make up time. Spectacular K5LA music from that toaster as well. It’s a shame they don’t sound like that anymore.
bmp456 They probably were.. back then there were no computers in those engines. If you were late you sped up to make up time. I think. That what an old engineer told me
you can measure the speed pretty accurately since we know all the car lengths. Just pick a post and time how long it takes for the whole train to pass by that one spot.
@@Trainmaster909 This isn’t film, this is video. Frame rate is 30fps up to 60 interpolated, just like today. Plus, sped up film is pretty obvious from the sound and appearance of people, etc. These trains really were going faster, it was still two years before Chase and the old school mentality of looking the other way and hauling ass was still alive and well.
VERY nice. The shots at Bowie were especially great!! No mistaking the husky sound of Pooches on he Auto Train. Also the F-40's were not only loud with their engines having to be a Notch 8 for HEP, their motors would always be screaming at speed too.
6:51 The good old days before RU-vid when people actually enjoyed having home movie video taken of them and they didn't have Social Networking phobias to worry about.
No doubt about it they were, especially the first train (with Heritage cars no less)! There’s even a cab ride clip in one of the early Pentrex NEC videos from this era of an AEM-7 speedometer hitting 130.
@@rene2072 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D7mbFiIH6-Q.html 1:28 in this video shows the speedometer creeping up to 130 before the overspeed kicked in. It was set pretty high on some of these units.
@@amtrak706 None of the units I operated from 1981-2012 would operate that fast. FRA tried to say that nonsense 127 mph about train #94 before the crash at Chase January 1987. They rode with me from DC to Wilmington after the crash and admitted their tests of the speedometer were wrong.
@@rene2072 Did you happen to know or work with my father Lou/Louis/LC Swirsky? He was an engineer for Amtrak out of NYP into the 90s, then yardmaster between A, PSCC, and Q in Sunnyside. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
First 4 minutes or so was at Bowie, MD. Then New Carrolton station (could hear aircraft taking off/landing at Andrews AFB, which is nearby in Forrestville, MD). Clearly showed the gauntlet track for running freight trains by the platform. Then Neabsco Creek at Hope Springs Marina on the RF&P near Woodbridge, VA when it still was the RF&P. The last couple of scenes looked like they were taken around Possum Point, near Quantico, VA on the RF&P. And if you wonder how I know, I worked as an attendant for Amtrak for 14 years out of DC, and then was a conductor and engineer for CSX for another nine out of Baltimore, and was a qualified engineer on the RF&P sub.
