WI: Jet Trains in the USSR?

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So this is interesting...
I never knew this but apparently in the 60s and 70s, both American and Soviet train car manufacturers tried to get prototypes like the above monstrosity to work..

The first attempt to use turbojet engines on a railroad was made by the New York Central Railroad in 1966. Their railcar M-497 was able to reach speeds up to 184 miles per hour (296 km/h)

The Russian train maker Kalininsky formed the Speed Wagon Laboratory. Following the New Yorker’s example, the modified the chassis of one of their ER22 head engines to look more or less like a rough version of a Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train which was already working in 1964 at 130 mph (210km/h).

They added two turbojet engines on the front as well: two turbojets from a Yakovlev YAK-40. Their first test was in 1971 on the line joining Golutvin with Ozery. They achieved a low 116mph (187km/h). However, they kept increasing the speed until they got up to 154mph (249km/h).


Like it’s American counterpart it never really went any further than that. Jet fuel costs, noise levels, and probably just the fact that this is plane old silly contributed to the closing of the programs in both countries..

So let's say for this scenario, the Reds are able to get one working in the 70s while the Americans still fail

How would it affect domestic commerce and travel within the Soviet state?
 
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Jet fuel becomes a valuable commodity after the fall. Truth be told you cant have speed if the tracks cant take it. Thus it requires an expensive infrastructure upgrade plus new methods of track switching in case of runaways.

Plus I doubt it could be used in a commercially viable way as train loads at the time were heavy hence the switch from lighter engines to heavier.

At best its another TU-144, at worst its a throwaway gag on Thomas the Tank Engine with one speeding through a wall after boasting.
 
0_847ac_498cc8c8_XXL.jpg

So this is interesting...
I never knew this but apparently in the 60s and 70s, both American and Soviet train car manufacturers tried to get prototypes like the above monstrosity to work..



So let's say for this scenario, the Reds are able to get one working in the 70s while the Americans still fail

How would it affect domestic commerce and travel within the Soviet state?
Well jet engine I believe were used on railways. But different way. :)
 
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Jet engine used by Czechoslovak railways in winter to melt snow and ice. More modern are used now constructed around jet engine. Not just adding old fighter plane on flat bed car.
 
Isn't the jet turbine supposed to be INSIDE the train? Just imagine the wasted heat and lost thrust in the exterior jet, not to mention the power to weight ratio! A MiG-25 of the time has a thrust to weight ratio of 0.41 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Specifications_.28MiG-25P.29 Yes, it doesn't need to fly, but it needs to move..... what thrust would these engines give, and more importantly how much torque (I assume zero?)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine_train

640px-CN_train_in_1975.jpg
 
There was also a propeller version of this in the late 1920's in Germany, the Schienenzeppelin. In the same year the Bennie Railplane was constructed near Glasgow, which was a suspended version of a propeller driven train, but like its German standard gauge counterpart, it never got past the prototype stage.

Schienenzeppelin_Steilrampe.jpg

The Schienenzeppelin prototype during trials
 
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Consider the difference between an air-boat and a speed-boat. Provided you don't have to skim over weeds, a propellor in water is so much more efficient than one in air...
 
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