>>1286317The physical plant was immaculately maintained.
>>1286327>A 180 km/h electric train is interesting, but this was an interurban, and while I will admit that the Electroliner was a neat idea, faster trains existed beforehand.That's true, it was not even the fastest electric train in the United States at the time. I think one of the things that makes it exception (at least in American railroading history) is that it was arguably a better "high-speed" electric multiple unit than the Metroliner (which was supposed to be America's answer to the original Shinkansen) which was nearly 25 years newer, yet plagued with mechanical problems and eventually restricted to 160 km/h.
>The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft operated a number of prototype Diesel Multiple Units in the 1930s with rail speed records set in 1936 and 1939. One of the models was known as the "Flying Hamburger" in the Anglosphere. DRG planned to operate high speed services at 160 km/h, although the trains were capable of 215 km/h. WWII got in the way of those plans.When I visited the preserved Pioneer Zephyr (an early American diesel multiple unit) as a child, I got a picture book about early innovations in diesel locomotives with a section dedicated to the "Flying Hamburger".
>The thing is, the Electroliners were weird. Only 2 were built and once the North Shore Line went bankrupt (as a result of the Great Depression), they went down to Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, post WWII France broke many speed records with their various electric locomotives, and France moved to develop ever faster and faster trains, eventually resulting in the TGV.The Electroliner was actually built at the tail end of the Great Depression, the North Shore Line wasn't abandoned until 1963. As for the TGV, I get the impression that national infrastructure projects like that are much more popular in Europe, and they don't share that perplexing anti-rail bias that many Americans seem to have. It's a shame, really.
