That sounds rediculously unsafe.

Nah, they installed a bunch of safety appliances in the fuel system.

Wouldnt the people in the train car get really hot?

naw, the jets were directed up slightly, the blast going up into the air, not a crossed the coach

Hah! That's awesome!

Wow.

Have they been able to so a speed test yet?

I watched it get tested this morning. It's gotten up to 20 MPH but thats as fast as they dare go on the track their using because it starts to wobble heavily at speed. But at 1/8th scale 20MPH translates out to 160 Scale MPH.

That is rather impressive. If wiki is right that is not far from the original's 186 mph. Was the wobble track conditions or just the frame and all couldn't handle much more?

Combination of both. The test track in a live steam club in a county park that has only a short section of dead straight track and there are some kinks here and there. That and the body seems to ride slightly high on the trucks they've used.

Cool! Well, for this train, you don't need a horn to warn people.

i remember when they did the real one. it was kind of insane at the time, and i remember thinking they couldn't possibly be serious. there's no way it would have stayed on the track unless it was absolutely straight. if i recall correctly, it was a bud car (rdc) under that thing, and arrived and departed any place it could be tested under conventional power.

there were some stories about it somewhere of which i don't remember all the details, but i seem to recall they didn't actually fire up the jets more then a very few times, if they even ever did.
i think it was more some kind of publicity stunt then any sort of serious development of faster rail vehicles. this was back in the late 50s or early 60s. shortly before REAL high speed rail development began taking shape in other parts of the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pB-PGnF-B0

Here's some footage of it

SCIENCE!!!

Guy on left with remote: FOR SCIENCE!