My grandpa was a lifer brakeman for Burlington Northern, later full conductor for Amtrak. Never heard of 125 mph, ever.
Not saying wrong, just never seen it, or heard of it.
“Sorry Road Glide, I was talking passenger trains. But have you ever seen even a freight train run that fast? Not happening in any urban area I’ve lived in. They slow WAY down. I’ve rode Amtrak my entire life and the fastest I ever saw them go was roughly 70. And we’re talking the North Dakota highline where the stops are at around 60 miles. They slow down at even the smallest one stoplight crossings.
My grandpa was a lifer brakeman for Burlington Northern, later full conductor for Amtrak. Never heard of 125 mph, ever.
Not saying wrong, just never seen it, or heard of it.”
The maximum speed for passenger trains in non-cab-signalled territory is 79mph.
If there are cab signals, the speeds can be faster.
That’s why (assuming the trains you rode were in non-cab-signal territory), the fastest speed you went -was- probably in the “seventies”.
Santa Fe used to run their fastest trail-van freights at around 80. Not sure if they still do, and this certainly wasn’t in the middle of cities. Sometimes they’ll slow down in urban areas is that the track isn’t straight enough to support higher speeds. Other trains may have setoffs/pickups in town.
Trains in the Northeast Corridor have been running at 125 for decades between Washington DC and New York City. Heck, they tried running 160 for a while in the days of the first “Metroliners”, and that was on old “stick rail”. I never did it, but I heard it was a rough and scary ride, and it wasn’t long before they dropped the speeds back to around 125.
When it was still a diesel-powered service between New Haven and Boston, the maximum speed was 100 in places. In 2001, when they electrified that route, the speeds were raised to 125 for locomotive-hauled trains (electric engines) and up to 150 in a few places for the Acela highspeed trainsets.
If you’re westbound heading towards New York, as soon as you turn off the Metro-North New Haven line at New Rochelle onto Amtrak territory, the speed jumps to 100mph. You cross the city line and it’s 100 to Pelham Bay right within NY city limits (though that area, near Orchard Beach, is lightly-populated).
Across the Bay, the speed is 70mph right through the Bronx, as you close in on Manhattan.
But, for a short distance, the timetable speed is 100mph right in New York City!