The Jet-Powered Train That Stunned America: Inside the M-497 Black Beetle’s Speed Record

In 1966, the M-497 Black Beetle train stunned the world by reaching nearly 300 km/h, setting a U.S. rail speed record. While the jet-powered experiment dazzled with its ambition, it never left the testing grounds.

In the 1960s, Americans decided to prove that speed wasn’t just the domain of aviation. The experimental M-497 Black Beetle train, equipped with jet engines, achieved a speed of nearly 300 km/h in 1966, setting a record for American railroads.

A Jet-Powered Locomotive

After World War II, railway companies faced a significant loss of passengers. One solution to this crisis was to increase speed, reclaiming their relevance in the transportation industry. In the mid-1960s, Don Wetzel, an engineer at New York Central Railroad, explored ways to make trains not only safer but also faster and more cost-effective. The most logical solution, he believed, was to mount surplus jet engines from the U.S. Air Force onto a prototype high-speed locomotive.

The first—and surprisingly not the last—experimental jet-powered locomotive, the M-497 Black Beetle, was developed in 1966 by the New York Central Railroad. The Black Beetle was based on the Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC-3) but featured a streamlined nose and two General Electric J47-19 jet engines. These engines, previously used on Convair B-36 intercontinental bombers, were acquired from the U.S. Air Force (USAF).

"These engines were already outdated by the rise of jet aircraft, which were powered by six piston engines in a pusher configuration," explains iDnes.cz. "However, they had unmatched range and altitude capabilities and were the only engines capable of delivering a heavy hydrogen bomb from the U.S. to the Soviet Union."

The Origin of the Black Beetle Name

According to Wetzel, the engines were "the cheapest 5,000-horsepower motors we could find." They were also highly reliable and easily adapted to run on diesel fuel, which was more suitable for the Black Beetle than jet fuel. "The original design had the engines at the rear, but we moved them to the front. My wife, who designed the locomotive’s appearance, said vehicles look better with the engines in front. There’s an old pilot saying: ‘If it looks good, it’ll fly well.’ We believed the same applied to trains," Wetzel told GE Reports.

As for the nickname Black Beetle, it came from the press, inspired by the locomotive's black aerodynamic nose cone. The entire conversion took less than 20 days, and by July 23, 1966, the train was ready for testing.

An American Speed Record

On July 23, 1966, the M-497 Black Beetle set a U.S. rail speed record of nearly 300 km/h during tests between Stryker, Butler, and Indiana in Ohio.

However, it quickly became evident that jet engines were impractical for regular railway use due to the exhaust gases emitted behind the train. "Passengers would have found these trains difficult to adapt to, with weaker individuals possibly even frightened by them," notes iDnes.cz.

A Futuristic Vision That Never Took Off

The idea of this "turbo train" never caught on. Despite collecting vast amounts of technical data on high-speed rail travel and track wear, the project was seen more as a publicity stunt than serious research. After the test runs, the jet engines were removed, and the RDC-3 returned to regular service. By 1984, the RDC-3 was retired.

Still, the experiment left behind valuable insights into high-speed rail technology and its challenges.

Source: oldmachinepress.com; gizmodo.com; GE Reports, iDnes.cz; Security Magazín