What ever happened to Atomic Trains?

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[FoundAndExplained]

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[rapidthrash]

The problem is that no one appears to have thought that a dedicated nuclear power station could be used to supply electricity to an electric railway

[elementalgolem]

the biggest issue i see with this is, they still need to run on rails, so just build electric locomotives with electrified rails, with the electricity coming from a nuclear power plant, and you have nuclear powered trains that never need to stop, nor refil

[TheZinmo]

Such radiators were used with "normal" steam trains too, especially in germany colonies in Africa like Namibia, where water was relatively scarce.

[politicallyinaccuratetoast]

US: normal sized train with a nuclear reactor

USSR: SNOWPIERCER

[OneBiasedOpinion]

Let me guess: did this not take off because power plants do better staying in one place and trains are very easy to electrify using the energy said plants generate?

[survivingworldsteam]

That is a nice computer model of the X-12. I made an HO scale non-powered one in Union Pacific livery that I was able to push around with a pair of powered F units. (The Union Pacific was definitely interested in a nuclear locomotive to replace it's Big Boy and Challenger steam locomotives. They were already building large gas turbine powered locomotives, and later large diesel locomotives.) It looked quite impressive and had massive overhang on the curves of my small layout. A couple of other things I learned in my research on building the model:

* The machinery ahead of the hexagonal reaction section is a steam generator. The passenger coaches of the time used steam from the steam locomotive for heating and cooling. When they were replaced by diesels, the diesels had to have a steam generator installed to heat and cool the coaches, usually in the tail end of the diesel. Since this engine wasn't intended to pull passenger trains, a steam generator was really unnecessary. Ahead of it was a small auxiliary diesel engine and generator; it was used to provide power to start the reactor as well as to move the locomotive alone around the train yard without starting up the reactor. The Union Pacific gas turbine locomotives also had auxiliary diesel generators for the same purposes.

* The fuel used in the reactor was weapons grade uranium mixed with sulfuric acid! Refueling the locomotive would be more than just draining the old mixture out and pouring the new mixture in, the old fuel would have to be recycled. The engineer in charge of designing the locomotive helpfully proposed that the government would build the refueling stations for the railroads; but this, coupled with the initial cost of the locomotive, the cost of the fuel, the training needed for locomotive crews, and the danger of an onboard reactor, and it is not surprising it was never built.

I put together a video on the X-12 on my channel as well, but nothing this nice. Well done.

[Michael_Michaels]

Man, your animations are SPOT ON! Congrats! Very impressive graphics! And excellent content this is!

[IKEMENOsakaman]

The nuclear train from Russia is in the current display in St.Petersberg, It's exibited in the Raiway Transport Museum. This nuclear strike train is a masterpiece among a fantastic layout. Tickets cost really few.

[WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

If they don't want the train to refuel, then we can just y'know
*use electric trains with overhead wire*

[impossiblescissors]

Very interesting video, having done a nuclear locomotive feasibility project in a 200-level intro to nuclear engineering course. I recall concluding that trains derailed too often to accept the risk.

[davidgrisez]

In the early years of nuclear energy there were ideas for nuclear powered car, trains, and airplanes. However in the long run nuclear power was used for stationary nuclear power plants, special navy ships primarily nuclear powered aircraft carriers, and nuclear powered submarines. One interesting fact about navy nuclear submarines is that the limiting factor on how long they can stay out at sea is how much food can be stored in the submarine. The nuclear power is nearly limitless but men have to eat food, which will run out first.

[erikziak]

10:42 The best argument. Works in Europe pretty nice. The problem is that the freight operators in the USA do not want to build and maintain overhead wires, as it is associated with costs and it is simply cheaper to run diesel-electric trains.

[jamesricker]

Someone did the math.
Electrifying the railways would be much cheaper and more economical.

[erasmus_locke]

Nuclear cargo ships are a real missed opportunity.

[brendanball]

Do y’all remember that game that told us to be safe around trains??? So many dumb ways to die! 😂

[SimonBauer]

lets face it there is no real point in them. just use catanary, no dangerous nuclear reactor on board (of course the power can come from a nuclear power plant too but thats a lot safer in terms of shielding required). also more efficient, you dont need to haul a 200 ton shield around. as well as the huge cooling array.

[pseudotasuki]

France already figured out how to do this the right way. They currently have thousands of nuclear-powered trains.

[whitefalcon]

She would not only be a steam train she would be a Steam turbine electric train like modern ones but here you turn the generators by steam turbines and you take the steam from a nuclear reactor that boils water.

For 12.000 years we still make energy out of boiling water.

[joeydr]

I guess we sort of have nuclear powered trains. Where I live we run on a nuclear power plant and the trains run off the electric grid from overhead cables. It’s just a more practical method.