Well looky here. Another early speed record to worry the guardians of modernity:
Here is a description of a fast run on the Plant System in 1901 during a government sponsored competition between the performance of the Plant System and Seaboard Air Line railroads for the awarding of a U.S. Postal Service mail contract.
U.S Postal Service authorities confirmed that the Plant System test train reached:
108 mph.
Oh yeah. Edwin P. Alexander in his book “American Locomotives 1900-1950” claims that Plant System 4-6-0 actually made it up to 120 mph in a two and one-half minute burst of speed, even though the Plant System never made any claim to a speed record, they just wanted that mail contract. Is it true? Who knows?
The fact that the Plant System did not claim the record for the 120 mph run is why I cited the 108 mph speed record. I am not sure if the Plant System claimed that record, but the U.S. Post Office did. If you can’t believe the Post Office, who can you believe?
Well, the judge in “Miracle on 34th Street” certainly believed the Post Office!
On Oct. 28th, 1903, this little beast reached 210 kph or a little over 130 mph on a test run between Marienfelde and Zossen, near Berlin:
It took 50 years to surpass that speed with electric traction.
The wire set up for the CAT is a heck of a way to get 3 phase AC.
Yup, you are right. It proved impractical in the long run. The 3 phase AC “experiment” ended soon after.