ATSF once wanted to nuke California

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The ATSF and State of California once planned to create a rail and highway bypass through a mountain range with 22 nukes.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/40221/that-time-the-united-states-almost-made-a-new-route-66-with-nuclear-bombs

[thomasjmdavis]

Well, the Super Chief would have arrived in LA 15 minutes sooner if they had gone through with the project.

Or maybe even faster, if they had also gone through with the X-12 Locomotive (which I think should have been called the U-235) since it only needs to stop for fuel once every 50,000 miles.
https://gizmodo.com/the-days-of-atomic-locomotives-in-america-1564623650

But now that I think about it, 7000 hp, nuclear fueled railroad locomotive sounds more like a UP loco than ATSF.

[packers#1]

The Drive has some of the best reporting man