July 23, 1966: jet-powered RDC sets the North American rail speed record of 183.85 mph
Last edited Thu Jul 24, 2014, 08:20 AM - Edit history (2)
with an asterisk, because as with all those records, someone can cite an exception. Nonetheless, on this day 48 years ago it was the record.*
Wikipedia says it's "still the light-rail speed record for the United States," but the New York Central mainline was not light rail.
The NYC from Butler, Indiana, to Air Line Junction, Ohio, is in Guinness Rail - The Records as the third-longest stretch of tangent track in the US, at 68.49 miles. Stryker, Ohio, is between those two endpoints, not far from the Indiana - Ohio border.
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* It's still number one for air propulsion:
Air propulsion