The railroad to nowhere: Fascinating pictures reveal an abandoned Soviet JET TRAIN that was once capable of travelling at 160mph

• e-mail

When it was brand new, it very probably looked like a dazzlingly futuristic, space-age mode of transport that left jaws dropping everywhere it went.

But now, it sits abandoned, gathering not plaudits – but rust.

These fascinating pictures show a Soviet ‘turbojet railcar’, which was built in the 1970s and proved capable of reaching an astonishing 160mph, thanks to the huge jet engines positioned on its roof.

These fascinating pictures show a Soviet ‘turbojet railcar’, which was built in the 1970s and proved capable of reaching an astonishing 160mph, thanks to the huge jet engines positioned on its roof

What made this concept impractical was the extremely high fuel consumption. Even today, as it sits rusting, it's still an impressive sight

The first turbojet trains were actually developed in the US by an engineer for the New York Central Railroad called Don Wetzel

What made this concept impractical was the extremely high fuel consumption.

And so this power car was pushed into a siding and left to rot.

The first turbojet trains were actually developed in the US by an engineer for the New York Central Railroad called Don Wetzel.

He was given the task in the mid-1960s of trying to make trains safer, less expensive and faster.

His solution: strap two jet engines to the roof of a locomotive and see what happens.

What happened was Wetzel created the first jet-powered train that even to this day is the fastest locomotive in America.

The American version of this remarkable train managed to hit 183mph 

The engines used for the Soviet turbojet train were very similar to those used on aeroplanes

The M-497 Black Beetle was developed by Wetzel in 1966. 

It was comprised of an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC-3) with an added, streamlined front cowling covering the car's blunt nose, and a pair of second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines. 

The engines were bought from the United States Air Force for a price of $5,000 for the pair. 

The engines previously were used as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber. 

'They were the cheapest 5,000 horsepower engines we could find,' Wetzel tells GE Reports. 

1966: New York Central Railroad's jet-powered car during a test run between Butler, Indiana and Stryker, Ohio

'They were also the most reliable... the engines could be easily adapted to burn diesel as opposed to jet fuel.' 

'My wife is a commercial artist and she did the streamlining design.

'The original design had the jet engines on the rear end of the car, but we changed it to the forward end. She said that the car looked a lot better with the engines on the front. There's an old pilot legend that if an airplane looks good, it usually flies good. We felt that if the jet train looked good, it would run good.'

Wetzel tested his creation on existing tracks between Butler, Indiana and Stryker, Ohio, because the long, flat and straight stretch of track was perfect to test a train traveling at speeds previously unheard of for a locomotive.

During testing, the train reached speeds of 183 mph, which is still the record for a self-propelled light train in America.