@BillYo414
Though I have never experienced riding in a steam locomotive cab, as a member of the National Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society as well as two other versions of the same organization, one local and the other specialized, I regularly get and read many journals some with full accounts of first-hand interviews with actual steam engineers and firemen that rode on locomotives at high speeds.
One of the main functions of the Pennsylvania railroad's Southern New Jersey subdivision, the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad, was to take passengers, mainly from Philadelphia, from the ferry terminals on the Delaware River in Camden New Jersey to points on the south Jersey Seashore, the main one being Atlantic City. Southern New Jersey is topographically flat and has populations living in small towns as well as rural areas. Not all, but much of the right-of-way was straight.
The West Jersey and Seashore Railroad was in fierce competition with the Reading Railroads South Jersey division t he Atlantic City Railroad with ferry/rail terminals in Camden on the Delaware River, not far away from the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad. The reading pulled their trains with camel-back steam locomotives that were capable of extremely high speeds.
In the very late 19th and early 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad's main east coast passenger motive power was the Class E-6, 4-4-2, Atlantic. The Atlantics were capable of jackrabbit speeds but could not pull long trains. As the PRR developed and began to use the powerful Class K-4s locomotives as their main passenger power, the Atlantics were reduced to commuter runs and short lines including assignment to the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad. There was a long straight stretch where some enginemen (the PRR's name for the engineer) would open wide the throttle of their Atlantics (Though they were not supposed to). There are reports of the Atlantics reaching very slightly upwards of 100 miles per hour. This was a land-speed record at the time! The descriptions of the cab ride on Atlantics were that as the engine reached 60 to 75 MPH, the engine felt as if it was going to rattle itself apart. However, once it went over 75 MPH, the ride became smooth. Oh well, forget physics principles.
Another Atlantic story is that of PRR #460, the "Lindbergh Atlantic". On June 11, 1927, Charles Lindbergh returned to Washington D. C. after his Transatlantic solo flight. Several Newsreel services wanted to be first to New York City with their films of the event. One chartered a plane. The other chartered a special PRR train pulled by #460 with a car containing a dark room to develop the film enroute. The train was given priority from Washington to NYC. The plane arrived first, but the train arrived not long after with already developed film ready for distribution. The average speed was 74 MPH, a record for that trip route. However, the engine crew reported spots along the route where the throttle was opened fully and reached speeds of 115 MPH.
