Re: 14 ft 8 inch extreme not-narrow gauge RR in Idaho

My thanks to Bruce for the google earth reference, and the photo/description of the locomotive. At first glance it looks like the railroad had a length of 2.5 - 3
miles. That locomotive certainly had a massive amount of shielding, including lead for beta and gamma radiation and water for neutrons. Shielding the crew on an aircraft would have been a huge challenge. One suggestion, apparently seriously considered, was to use older pilots who would be less likely to pass on their radiation damaged genes (i.e. curmudgeon pilots ?). A nuclear reactor was actually installed in an aircraft and flown on numerous test flights, but it was not used to operate the jet engines. We can be very happy that the nuclear powered jet engines stayed on the railroad, and are not flying around overhead.