How a Pile of Worthless Dirt Built the Fastest Train in America (And Killed the Men Who Drove It)

In the 1870s, Pennsylvania railroads were sitting on mountains of worthless mining waste — coal dust too fine to burn in any locomotive firebox in existence. One engineer figured out how to burn it. The firebox he invented was so wide it had no room for a cab behind it. So he moved the cab forward — directly above the driving wheels. The locomotive that resulted set speed records no one expected. It also put its crew in one of the most dangerous positions in the history of American railroading. This is the story of the Camelback — the machine built to burn garbage that became the fastest train in America.