今から55年も前
蒸気機関車で運び入れられた電車が、世界最速256キロメートルのレコードを叩き出して、さぞかし当時の開発者は誇らしかっただろうなぁ
この映画何度見ても本当に面白い pic.twitter.com/WsyuDPU5WI- めんちゃか@プロミ1日目 (@menchaka_eg2) June 7, 2018
I am a sucker for vintage industry promotion films, the kind of thing the third grade home room teacher would show as a treat on a dull Thursday afternoon. The soundtrack was warped, the film was scratched and patched and sometimes got stuck, but it was all fun.
Japanese rail fans love to post vintage photos and I came across this tweet with a fascinating video of the very first Shinkansen test car being pushed by a steam engine to the test site. It's easy to forget how important the Shinkansen project was to Japan leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Even if you do not understand Japanese you can sense the importance of it all from the film clip: scrubbed technicians performing their jobs, testing the infrastructure and of course watching that first Shinkansen train whoosh past at full speed.
It's hard to believe that the Shinkansen project almost didn't happen. I wonder how happy the project team felt when the first Shinkansen whooshed by. It must have been a great day. The future arrived at 250 km/h.
(Via Ata Distance)
The tweet Joel includes has the video of the train. I love this stuff.