All The Live long Day...."Now departing on Track Two"!

@Pappy, s favorite picture!
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A tilting train.

This is what I travel on when going to London; they have now changed names and livery. The first one should play if you click on the "Watch on YouTube" link.


 
My Dad was a railway man and every year he'd get a pass to take his family interstate. We always visited his sister who lived in Melbourne. We loved the journey and because it was 2nd class he had to go and find a card table to put across the seats so my sister and I had somewhere to sleep. They were in the sit-up seats. We loved it when the steam train passed through a tunnel and we could smell all the lovely smoke.
 
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'White Trains' Operated from the 1950s-1980s​

For as long as the United States has had nuclear weapons, it has struggled with the question of how to transport America’s most destructive technology throughout the country without incident. “It’s the weak link in the chain of nuclear security,” said Dr. Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Today the United States relies almost entirely on million-dollar, Lockheed Martin tractor-trailers, known as Safeguard Transporters (SGTs) and Safe Secure Trailers (SSTs) to move nuclear material. But from the 1950s through the 1980s, the great hope for safe transit was so-called “white trains.”

"These trains looked entirely ordinary, except for a few key details. They featured multiple heavily armored boxcars sandwiched in between “turret cars,” which protruded above the rest of the train. The turrets had slit windows through which armed DOE guards peered out, prepared to shoot if they needed to defend the train. Known in DOE parlance “safe, secure railcars,” or SSRs, the white trains were highly resistant to attack and unauthorized entry. They also offered “a high degree of cargo protection in event of fire or serious accident,” the DOE assured a wary Congress in 1979."

"Though nuclear trains staffed by snipers guarding powerful weapons sounds like something out of an action-adventure film, the trains were far from glamorous. They moved slowly, maxing out at 35 miles per hour—a virtual crawl compared to the average Amtrak train. This meant very long cross-country journeys for their seven-member crews. One of the most common routes for the train took nuclear bombs from Texas to Bangor, Washington, delivering the weapons at a submarine base on the banks of the Puget Sound. Another frequent route took bombs from Texas to Charleston, South Carolina, where a set of submarines sat poised for missions in the Atlantic." (READ MORE)
 
"Finally, an item for Romulan lovers out there, the Star Trek Romulan Ale Tank Car. This tank car will go with either the original series or the Next Generation set. To order yours, head to the link located here. The Romulan Ale Tank Car will cost $79.99."

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