Pere Marquette and a 38' Chevy

Wow - that was fun. 

It would have been more fun had the loco crushed the Chevy into an accordian.  But it was fun.  I guess it made Chevy's point that their frame was strong!

Thanks for posting this.

That was neat.  Looked like something Mythbusters would do.

Nice. I enjoyed that!

That made my day! Thanks for posting.

In a Reading steam video, there is a scene of a huge I-10sa 2-8-0 shoving against a wooden "bobber" (4-wheel) caboose. The rear end crew is sitting at the top of a hopper car in front of the caboose in case its wooden frame gives way.

Heck I was just impressed the Chevy stayed on the rails...

That was a neat video!  Thanx for posting.  Methinks that if you tried to do that with today's automobiles, mostly not even having a frame, you'd end up with a "ball of steel" all rolled up with the driver still inside.

Paul Fischer

Air Bags ?

Very cool.  Always great to see footage of old Pere Marquette steamers!  I am very surprised they could keep that on the rails.  

Yeah, I'm not sure what it proves but it sure is interesting.  The driver stays in the car, no less! 

hello guys and gals.........

Did they have seat belts back then ?

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

Just proves the frame is solid and strong, that the Pere Marquette rostered some nice steam and that the driver has very good hand eye coordination to keep that thing on the rails....

When I lived in the U.P. of Michigan back in the 70's, a popular sport among young guys was "trackin" - which was driving on train tracks with your car.  The average American car then was built with the same gauge as standard gauge track (except the Pontiac!) so the tires fit right on the rails.  The bias ply tires of the time wrapped right over the rail head with a little air let out - wide ovals usually didn't even need that.  You could put the car in gear and it would cruise along at around 15 mph without needing any steering inputs.  The braver ones would climb out of the car and sit on the roof - but you had better get in and hold the wheel when going over switches and grade crossings.  This was mostly done on little used old mining and logging lines back in the hills.  I never heard of any car -train collisions except for someone hitting a stationary log car at night, but there were a few close calls.

Regarding keeping the car on the rails....

That "brace" that is attached to the engine pilot - there is also one attached to the box car - is the reason the auto stays in line. The brace has widely spaced female pockets which match up to a male projection on the bumper mounts of the auto. With everything squared up and pressure applied, I expect the auto is trapped into alignment with both the train and the rails.

No.  Seat belts weren't mandated until 1966 or so.

Rusty

And Ford offered them in 1956 (they were not a sales success) and Nash, I believe, in the early fifties.

While I HIGHLY doubt that they had seat belts in that car, they did add seat belts from some car stunts. The one that comes to mind is when the drove the Chrysler Airflow off the cliff or when they rolled it over.

I'll bet that the car driver is wishing that he hadn't followed the instructions from his sat-nav? 

What is the name of that music?  I can't get it out of my head now.

I'm pretty sure it's a variation on the triumphal march from Aida by Verdi. 

Nice fenders on the chevy!

Dave

Boy you got that right, there had to have been some oopsy moments for sure....I would love to have seen those also.