This Rocket Train Was Once The Future Of Soviet Railroads, But Now The Relic Lies Rusting In Peace

What happens when two powerful nations are at loggerheads to outdo each other? Two decades of cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union has resulted in several weird outcomes. They have somehow averted nuclear war, but peace between two warring nations was nowhere to be seen. In the meanwhile, the United States gained a brownie point when an American became the first man to land on the moon. Nevertheless, the Soviets were ready to revert by inventing something that would make them superior in technology. In a quest to become the superpowers, the Soviet thought of inventing the rocket train. This train would borrow the engines from a fighter jet and would revolutionize the transportation system. The Soviet started working on the idea in 1970, but in the mid-1960s, the Americans had already pursued the plan and dumped it. The New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel took up the task of developing a train that would be a faster yet safer way to travel. Wetzel spent $5000 in acquiring an old Air Force bomber so that he can use its dual engines. The dual engines were worked upon and fixed to the end of the train, but Wetzel’s wife recommended that the engines should be placed in front of the train. The suggestion was taken and the changes were made. The train looked good and it seemed to come straight out of some science fiction. The train, M-497, reached up to 183.85 miles per hour officially and it also got its name mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Record. Even after a successful run, the train was dismantled. In 1970, when the Soviet Union started working on their project. They had a similar design, but their speed of 160 miles per hour was much less than Wetzel’s train. The train that was supposed to transform the locomotive system for good turned out to be one impractical idea. It was using a lot of fuel and that too much quicker than the jet plane. Therefore, the project was done and dusted and everybody almost forgot about this futuristic train project until a photo blog by the name English Russia posted a picture. The picture resembles the futuristic train with the dual engine still sitting quietly on the top of the train. The light blue paint is falling off and the pieces of the train have gone missing. The train was found abandoned on a remote stretch of railroad in Russia. This is how once an ambitious project is lying in the oblivion at present.