The propeller-powered train, dubbed the “Zeppelin on Rails,” was expected to usher in a new age of transportation.
When the Schienenzeppelin travelled at 143 mph on the Berlin to Hamburg line in Germany on June 21, 1931, it broke the previous speed record for trains.
According to The Daily Mail, it covered 180 miles in 1 hour, 44 minutes.
The trip could only be completed in three hours and fifteen minutes by the quickest train at the time. In the end, the zeppelin’s record remained for 23 years.
Earlier this month, a video of the locomotive in action from 1930 was released on Twitter, which caused it to resurface.
A 600 horsepower engine initially propelled the train with a four-bladed propeller, followed by one with two blades.
Despite the 1931 test’s success and others that came before it, the train was never mass produced because of issues with dependability and the propeller’s safety.
The record-setting prototype was ultimately disassembled in 1939, when the Second World War started and the German army needed the components.
Franz Kruckenberg, a German aeronautical engineer, created and built the Schienenzeppelin, a 40-passenger aeroplane.
It featured five compartments inside, including spaces for luggage, smoking areas for patrons, and a bathroom.
The train initially had two gasoline aeroplane engines, and subsequently it had a single 12-cylinder BMW engine.
The train still maintains the record for the fastest land vehicle powered by gasoline, and the speed record it achieved in 1931 was not broken until 1954.
The next day, the Daily Mail reported that a representative of the “German State Railway” and numerous ladies were among the passengers on the 1931 trip that broke all previous records.
A jet that had been behind the train, it said, “lagged much of the way but caught up at the finish.”
The trip took place two months after the train travelled the same route at 128 mph.
The train was tested for the first time between Hanover and Celle in October 1930, reaching 93 miles per hour with 40 people on board.
For a German publication, a writer who was travelling there wrote: “One goes in and finds oneself in a building of steel, wood, and things.
The driver is seated in the front on a raised seat, with various levers on a board in front of him and pedals at his feet. Right and left are recliners.
The brakes remain still engaged even if the engine is turned on. The car’s engine continues to hum, but the brakes keep it from moving.
“At this point, the driver lets off the brakes, and the automobile moves ahead first slowly.
The time is passing very swiftly. After 30 seconds, it had reached a speed of 31 miles per hour.
A little while later, the car’s brakes were used in order to bring it to a halt at the track’s conclusion.
Zeppelins were a well-liked mode of transportation in Germany, Britain, and other countries about the same time the railway was being tested.
They had been employed to drop bombs on London and other cities during the First World War.
The journey took Lady Drummond-Hay little over 21 days, making her the first woman to fly around the world.
The safety of the hydrogen-filled zeppelins, which were used in the early 1930s and prior, was initially questioned after the crash of the British R101 zeppelin in October 1930.
The 1937 Hindenburg tragedy marked the end of the era of zeppelin travel.
In that incident, a German airship, the LZ 129 Hindenburg, caught fire as it touched down in America after flying over the Atlantic.
35 of the 97 persons on board died as a result of the accident, and one member of the ground crew also perished.