The US Government's SECRET NUCLEAR RAILWAY!

Today we learn about a very peculiar locomotive used to transport experimental nuclear equipment. It weighted over 200 tons (despite only being 45ft long), had windows that were 4ft thick, and traveled on tracks with four rails.

[allenra]

The most extensive use of the railroad was during the AEC Reactor Test Station, Loss Of Fluid Test Program. Every reactor design was built on the flat car, inside what was called the "Hot Shop", a big shielded building with remote manipulators and robot cranes. The flat car with the reactor on it was then pushed into a containment dome and left parked in there on a bridge over a large pit. A very large water tank sat on the north side of the dome with a big pipe and a big gate valve to quench a runaway reaction in the dome. The water in the tank was never needed. The reactor in the dome would be connected to control circuits and cooling water systems. When It was at full power, the coolant would be drained out of it and it would be allowed to melt down. When the reaction stopped, because the melting metal diluted the melting fuel to the point where the reaction couldn't continue, everything would cool off and solidify. The destroyed reactor would then be pulled out of the dome on the flat car and moved east to the "Hot Shop", where it would be carefully torn apart and every aspect of the meltdown damage would be recorded. All of the reactor designs from US companies and a few foreign concerns, were built and tested to destruction at the Reactor Test Station during the LOFT Project. All of the buildings are gone now. They were demolished and the pieces buried during 2010-2014 by the Idaho Cleanup Project contractors. Only the locomotive remains at the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 museum, south of US Highway 20/26, just north of the Big Butte Volcano between Idaho Falls (Highway 20), Blackfoot, ID (US Highway 26) and Arco, ID (US 20/26), northeast of Craters of the Moon National Monument. The museum is open from May to October with INL employees providing visitor education.

[myfavoritemartian]

The Jackass Railroad runs in area 25 of north/central Nevada. It is a closed loop of track that only serves the old US Nuclear Rocket Engine project (NRDS). It is still on Google Earth including the train just sitting on open track for eternity due to radiation. Interesting place!

[jamiesuejeffery]

My grandfather worked out an the INEL as an electrical engineer back in the 1950's and 60's. It was always called, "The Site." I don't know how many nuclear reactors are out in the middle of the Idaho desert, but I want to say about 30. It was fun visiting family in Idaho Falls. The yellow buses (Greyhound type, not school) that transported workers would be out on the roads twice a day. Since the U.S. Navy did a lot of nuclear training out there, you would see sailors standing on the curb in their blue uniforms...in the middle of desert farmland. EBR-1 is the only reactor on the south side of the highway and is open for tours during the summer months (double check the calendar first). It is also one of the best areas to have a car break down. In the middle of the desert, you will have very kind and helpful people out next to your car offering help in under 10 minutes.

[ronsindric]

WOW ! This train, its flatcar, rails and support materials would sure make for an interesting model train layout !

[karlmadsen]

I want one of those Gilbert atomic energy lab kits. They're probably illegal today, probably dangerously radioactive, which makes it even more attractive.

[trainwrecker]

@the 5:08 mark I'm pretty sure that's an internal shot of the "KILLDOZER"!

[Rorschach]

There was a similar rail car at the Lockheed plant in Georgia built to test equipment that had been irradiated. The locomotive would pull an unshielded air cooled reactor around the complex and park it near equipment to be tested. Then the control rods were pulled by remote control.

[Pensyfan]

Very well made video! Never knew there was this many cool photos and details about this obscure engine.

[FaustoTheBoozehound]

Thought I knew a little about INL, never heard of this though! Very cool purpose-built loco and that double wide turntable has gotta be one-of-a-kind as well. Great video.
And fwiw, thank you for not over playing the danger posed by the lab, as a nuclear reactor such as those being developed and operated at the site, are not and cannot become a nuclear bomb. Those nuclear jets though... They operated with an open air cooling circuit, meaning the air going the core became radioactive and left a trail of fallout. Not a big deal over enemy territory, but not ideal for testing on home soil 😅 (They also weighed nearly as much as that loco!)

[Jennifer-KLA]

I think this loco deserves to be my next scratch building project 😊

[west_side_]

The funny thing is that i learned about this yesterday, and now i get a video about it today!

[dieseldragon]

Pushing cars at 02:25 is used in a few places for various practical reasons. The Snowdon Mountain Railway (North Wales) - For example - Pushes passenger cars up the mountain _without_ them being coupled to the locomotive. This is a safety feature so that if the loco jumps the rack and rolls down the incline it doesn't pull the passenger car down with it, which tragically did happen in one incident shortly after the railway first opened and which resulted in that practice.

As for top speed at 05:30; If my experience of the _Empire Builder_ is anything to go on, this lil' loco - Despite its weight - Is still capable of travelling 4mph faster than many things operated by Amtrak! 🐌💨🚂😉

[vincegranato]

Very informative video. But the Jackass Flats railway system maybe of interest too? Not only rail lines for the nuclear rockets (Kiwi series) but their ramjet too; Project Pluto. Very elaborate at the time.

[Railfanning]

Hey, that's my territory! Great video, my man!!

[krishnakripa]

This thing looks like a horrifying fusion of Southern Pacific Cab-forward

[josephstewart]

Excellent video! I've visited the site of the locomotive and the two nuclear jet engines on two separate occasions and the experience was awesome.

[captainnope]

Sheesh it must have been carrying around some exceptionally hot cargo if the only way in our out during normal operations was a shielded tunnel in the ground. Wonder of a geiger counter would start to click a little more around it today. I saw it when I visited the EBR-1 last year, and getting to see this machine along with the 2 engine reactors next to it was special.

[tomcarlson]

You can just about bet the crew that ran that locomotive had some euphemisms they referred to it by...If any of them are still alive it would be interesting to hear what they called that locomotive.

[Sam-nhxb]

States, "train has no numbers." Next picture 0:37 Numbers "75805" on side of train. 😂

[chuxtuff]

Excellent video!! I was stationed at Mountain Home AFB in southern Idablo so I had heard of this Gov't facility where the wind blows happy all day!! That's what we called it. The wind around southern Idablo seemed to be relentless...