The US Government's SECRET NUCLEAR RAILWAY!

[@allenra530]

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.

[@wyliesdiesels4169]

wow those reactors mustve been really hot!! as in radioactive.

[@AdamE-s4y]

I'm truly impressed with this knowledge. It's something most people would never know. It adds to the fact that logistics is the main way of understanding how things work. One can have/imagine a wonderful idea,but the question is always, "how?" I am from a unique group of individuals who always ask, "what are te logistics of something happening? Sounds strange, but it makes sense to me.

[@tsgetty]

You might also want the Alco reactor in Schenectady, NY. It's now under the care of RPI.

[@allenra530]

@@AdamE-s4y The history of the National Reactor Test Station, which eventually became the INL, is available from the INL in PDF form. It is titled "Proving The Principle".

[@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.

[@jamesburton1050]

The people offering to help, is that from the security at the site? (Ie, Area 51 style)

[@jamiesuejeffery]

@@jamesburton1050 Yes. And, they are actually very nice. My cousin had a boy scout campout on a butte overlooking the site. They were up there for about an hour...had their tents pitched, a campfire ready to go, and a very kind gentleman came and checked on them. No big cameras no big radio equipment. Firewood, flint, marshmallows. All good to go.

[@jamesburton1050]

@@jamiesuejeffery interesting!

[@myfavoritemartian1]

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!

[@DeathValleyLumberCompany]

I believe a few of the locomotives were de contaminated and sent to the Nevada state railroad museum in Boulder

[@myfavoritemartian1]

@@DeathValleyLumberCompany Yes, I can only see a single contaminated one in Google Maps.

[@ronsindric4241]

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

[@tuckerdogglass5383]

I was thinking the same thing., what a cool layout it would be! Great idea!

[@Rorschach1024]

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.

[@karlmadsen3179]

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

[@trainwrecker22]

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

[@dieseldragon6756]

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! 🐌💨🚂😉

[@vincegranato4505]

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.

[@TonyLasagna]

The snow plow really seals the deal

[@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!)

[@thomasanderson440]

Technically, only the GE design used an open cooling circuit. The P&W design used an intermediate working fluid and a heat exchanger. The good news for either one though is that most of the neutron activation would be of atmospheric nitrogen, which has a half life of only 7 seconds when activated and would therefore completely decay in minutes.

[@Pensyfan19]

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

[@Jennifer-K5LA]

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

[@tuckerdogglass5383]

Thank you for this informative piece of history! I want to model this train. HO scale,

[@captainnope747]

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.

[@ut4321]

Amazing video!!! Thank you so much for posting this - it’s great to see the bizarre history from the Cold War.

[@krishnakripa3643]

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

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

lol

[@Padoinky]

This is great content

[@markjames8664]

This reminds me of the special rail line and parallel road in New Jersey connecting the main part of Naval Weapons Station Earle and the piers used to load weapons into ships. Earle was believed to hold nuclear weapons, but the government does not publicly reveal such depots.

[@west_side_9]

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

[@CJSHM]

I remember visiting the EBR1 site in 2008. We didn't even know it was there but we saw a sign on the way out to the coast. Weirdest experience we've ever had, want to go back now as an adult.

[@208Railfanning]

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

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@Sam-nh5xb]

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

[@TheAnnoyingBoss]

I bet you if you opem it thr reactor inside says reactor #3. And who would even knkw if its true. If tbey USED to ride rhese babies for miles.. where are they now

[@darwinawardrecipient955]

Do a video on the underground line from pantex to ND

[@richardwilliams6837]

Genuinely fantastic and fascinating... thank you for your research and production!

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed!

[@richardwilliams6837]

Over on this side of the pond, back in the 1960s we just used a OO/HO toy train to push the samples inside a nuclear test machine!

[@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...

[@tomcarlson3913]

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.

[@joshm2610]

lol the Killdozer interior

[@TryItAgainTomorrow]

Was just going to add something about that.... odd choice @ 5:07 lol.

[@SoCalOCRailfan]

Awesome video!! Very interesting how they did it back then

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

2:53 If only you had another, closer image of the secret turntable on the secret railroad/way at this secret base... I'd love to see a four rail roundabout.

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Me too. Unfortunately, I think that's the only image of that turntable on the internet.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

@@Southern_Plains_Railfan Thanks for coming back. Would you believe it that I've spent the last forty minutes ever more open mouthed at the sheer size of the old site, all those arrow straight roads and rail lines. Could I find the turntable or evidence of it? Could I heck.

[@josephstewart9959]

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.

[@pn112upfast]

Excellent mate from UK 🇬🇧 very informative 👍

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@timslager5966]

Wow, that was an awesome presentation, thanks for sharing this video 👍

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed!

[@dfwrider3830]

sounds like the outside of the cab must have been a pretty hazardous environment, i wonder how they hooked up the air brakes.

[@rtz549]

I like that double track setup.

[@redsquare8256]

Fantastic video - thank you for making!

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed!

[@anzac407]

Very cool!

[@tri-lakesozarkrailroad6360]

I used to live right down the road from that! The branch line that serves INL is there also and maintained but it doesn’t look traveled very often

[@sketchy816]

Excellent and informative video , thanks .

[@sernajrlouis]

Great video

[@hammertime1]

My grandfather used to run this locomotive. He said that it nicknamed “Casper” like Casper the ghost.

[@MrSlartybartfast42]

Hi from the UK, great video, very very interesting. It has also given me an idea for a body for an n-scale kato chassis

[@skunkwerx9674]

What a wonderful video. Thanks!

[@MirasomeRailfan]

Thanks for your info-full videos!

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

No problem!

[@paulpochan9631]

Well done..!!! I wonder if there is any declassified info on the engine(s) that worked at the NRDS moving the nuclear powered rocket engines...???

[@williamflowersrailfannerpr3808]

Great Work

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@williamflowersrailfannerpr3808]

Your most welcome

[@janjohnson9746]

Visiting the INEL they let me take my survey meter which didn't show much above normal background radiation except for the jet engine sets that were maybe ten times background. They belong to the Smithsonian but are too hot to display in a normal museum.

[@-DM]

I subscribed because of the way you pronounced "1954", also because of the interesting topic.

[@hamentaschen]

Shalom. Great video dude. Thank you!

[@Blugrazz]

Fascinating history. Quite insane!

[@stevem3605]

Great video, thanks for sharing.

[@jamesburton1050]

Fascinating! Great accent too!!

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@bnsfgevoproductions]

Yay SPR talks about the PNW! W video.

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

lol, thanks!

[@bnsfgevoproductions]

@@Southern_Plains_Railfan no problem

[@unr74]

Probably nitpicking but EBR-1/ Arco is SouthEASTERN Idaho. Great posting though. It must have been fun to get that thing from the site to EBR-1.

[@schlempfunkle]

Whoa! Minute 6, is that radiation in a supersaturated alcohol vapor chamber?

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Yes

[@toasterhavingabath6980]

Looks like an upscaled welsh engine

[@cxmx3295]

Like the video thank you for all the information

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

You’re welcome!

[@dunxy]

Very interesting! Never heard of it.

[@koreychun2217]

Thing looks like a Car Wash Blower

[@hypercomms2001]

Was a similar train, used at the Nevada test site for testing the different nuclear thermal rocket engines?

[@Biggles732]

I thought i heard nuclear powered jets mentioned .

[@allenra530]

The nuclear powered aircraft got cancelled before anything was built except 2 of the engines. They are at the museum, next to the locomotive. The plane was supposed to be able to carry 1000 soldiers and their vehicles and weapons. Then someone asked "What if it gets shot down? What happens to all of the soldiers and what about the reactor getting blown apart?" That kind of loss of personnel and the possible cleanup caused support for the project to evaporate. President Kennedy cancelled it.

[@funrun07haan50]

Yo this is dope❤🤩🤩

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

Thank you!

[@bwhog]

Given it's weight and speed, I propose just calling it "The brick" 😁

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

lol

[@Metanaut1]

my Dad worked at "The Site" aka idaho national laboratory, back in the late 70's early 80's, MPH

[@Hippida]

Plus 1 for something I didn't know before

[@rossbryan6102]

FINALLY!! A LOCOMOTIVE I DO NOT WANT A CAB RIDE IN !! KEEP THEM ROLLING BROTHERS!! 👍👍

[@Southern_Plains_Railfan]

lol, will do!

[@Markus-r2b3w]

Or keep them shining bright (because of radiation)☢️

[@scarlettsky4027]

I love that you used the kill dozer cab

[@ModMokkaMatti]

Next stop, the apocalypse! All aboard!

[@KouuToriProductions]

I live out in Idaho Falls, I may have to take a trip to Arco next time I get bored.

[@stanleepatterson95]

Check out the four railed track the fort peck dam in montana has. It is by the spill way.

[@rapidthrash1964]

Let's name it "Pugwash"

[@Unknown_Ooh]

I'm glad they decided to keep that piece of history but i guess they assumed its cheaper to donate it than to attempt to scrap all that lead and oil 😂

[@AndreiTupolev]

So didn't they know much about shielding then and they moved unshielded reactors and highly radioactive materials about in the open air? Or were they just extremely cautious?

[@bavarianmonkey8326]

it is much easier to shield the locomotive than it would be to shield those Experimental reactors...

[@tuqe]

This would make an awesome horror game

[@Xsiondu]

Well that's just too cool

[@Coinbro]

Seen it didn't know about tunnel cool

[@Scarlettmidnight0928]

This is only a few hours away from me its out in my neck of the woods

[@Jon6429]

Reminds me of the Krell transport cab from the movie Forbidden Planet that came out 1956. Probably just a coincidence...

[@0FF1C3R-NA5TY]

Sooo can it be put in a regular train as an engine or train car. It use Same size tracks?

[@Damien.D]

Never knew there was a little network of tracks and even a turntable at this place. I knew about the wide flatbeds and only saw pictures of the shielded loco, but I didn't knew a thing about the rest. I thought there only was one piece of track to push experiments around, and not at all of this. Very impressive installations. Would be lovely to have a model form of all of the place (with running trains of course) at the museum. Modelling nuclear reactors must be a lot of fun :P And there is also another very unique loco related to the US cold war nuclear industry. And it's a darker and even more radioactive story. It's at the Hanford Site. The process to produce plutonium for bombs involved irradiating nuclear fuel for a short time in specialized reactors, then taking it out while the thing was still running, to be then processed in separation plants (the "canyons") in another part of the complex. The thing between the reactors and the separation plant is a railway, of course, and the way to transport something as radioactive as a freshly irradiated nuclear fuel is under water, in a specialized open top railway hoppers full of water. The water was a sufficient shielding for a normal locomotive to be used to push the wagon around, albeit with a flatcar between the water hopper and the locomotive to have some more distance and protection for the crew. But once at the separation plant, the wagon had to enter the heavily irradiated building. Separation plants are so radioactive that no human can enter these places, for ever, all have to be remotely operated. Including a little, electric, one of a kind, battery operated loco (produced by Atlas Car), that was used to push the water and radioactive fuel filled flask car on the last branch to enter the building. The dark part of the story is the end of this little engine. In the separation plant, any machinery that failed was replaced with no direct human intervention, all with remotely operated tools and cranes. The heavy machinery was hauled with overhead cranes to where the nuclear fuel came in, where the railway was. An empty flat car awaited the heavily irradiated equipment, and the little white loco task was to push it in a dead-end tunnel, a nuclear waste tunnel, which progressively filled with more and more flat cars full of equipement so radioactive that no one could touch it for thousands of years.... And at the last one, the little electric loco didn't came back from the tunnel, and was entombed too....

[@johnschell7514]

I drive past that locomotive every day I go to work. It's located in South East Idaho not South West Idaho.😊😊😊

[@ScottKew-g8r]

That s the Fastest 2.5 MPH loaded anyone would ever want to go !!!

[@ratheonhudson3311]

2.5mph is enough for heavy nuclear cargo. No one wants an out of control 100mph multi-tonne train going down the line.

[@ScottKew-g8r]

I d be thinking...how much overtime am I collecting? How much? OK!

[@AsbestosMuffins]

Its top speed was 2.5 mph....but its cargo was fueled experimental nuclear reactors so kind of needed

[@ptonpc]

Well, if I ever get to the USA, this is going on my tour list.

[@Dave-dn3tz]

It could be named either "lead sled" or "eyesore", either will do.

[@theromanorder]

Why didn't i get notified about this? Im anoyed this is the 5th time this has happened

[@ScottKew-g8r]

Looks like double length ties too.

[@loukasgames6724]

I like dis

[@camdelaforce1230]

I came for ya documentary, but where exactly is your accent from in the states? I sound stupid in asking, but you know 🇦🇺g'day mate 😂 cheers!

[@gravemind452]

good name for the loco could be lead belly

[@redlight722]

If you push a load…. Then you have to pull it back out. The locomotive pushed and pulled 50/50.

[@bavarianmonkey8326]

Sure, but If you push the load towards the experiment, you can run away backwards without the experiment being in the way

[@Metra167Productions]

Lets go!! New upload and 3rd

[@IdahoRailfan]

Yes it is train!

[@krishnakripa3643]

And this unknown locomotive

[@davidgenie-ci5zl]

Leave it to the government to tear up the track. What a waste. No thought that maybe it may be needed again. Stupid.

[@georgedoolittle9015]

Reactor design today as of 2024 pushing the size of a 53 foot shipping container so surprised the Government isn't working with all the major Class 8 Railroads to effect this as a 21st Century motive power unit to safely, reliably and "forever-ly" move freight between for example Los Angeles and Dallas and back. US Freight Rail is still hopelessly dated compared to what is going on in the World of battery electric vehicles. Could be used as a very powerful source of backup power generation as well. This Labatory became well known for one of the first nuclear accidents resulting in a fatality #tickling_the_dragons_tail Lou Slotin famously dressed in a T-shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots irradiating the entire room including himself during a test😊😊

[@b43xoit]

Count of people, not amount of people.

[@krishnakripa3643]

This Poor song you bought from The trainspotter from tauranga