A hundred mph is hard to believe. I don’t know about the passenger locomotive models that Amtrak uses, but most locomotives have a top speed of 70mph. Also, there are usually onboard systems that limit the top speed of the locomotive, and will drop power and apply a penalty brake application if that speed is exceeded, and an engineer cannot override those systems.
The only way to know is to retreive the event recorder (locomotive “black box”), and look at the data.
From another article:
Amtrak crews have been installing “Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement” on the Northeast Corridor and other Amtrak rail routes, and were to install the system this year in the Philadelphia area.
The system is designed to prevent collisions, automatically slow speeding trains and enforce speed restrictions.
Positive Train Control, which includes Amtrak’s system, is required by federal law to be installed on all passenger and major freight railroads by the end of this year.
But many railroads have asked for more time to install the expensive systems, and Congress is considering extending the deadline to 2020.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150514_Amtrak_Derailment__What_we_know.html#9yKZIBCsqMR6dJok.99
The Acela Express tops out at 125mph....
welcome to the new world!
Acela Express trains are the fastest trainsets in the Americas; the highest speed they attain is 150 mph (240 km/h) in revenue service.
Amtrak runs Acela trains on this line and regularly exceeds 130 mph on some parts of the line.