A character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Kip Chalmers is a Washington man who has decided to run for election as Legislator from California. On the way to his campaign, the Taggart Transcontinental train that was carrying him encountered a split rail, resulting in the destruction of its diesel engine-at that point, one of the last of its kind left anywhere in the world. After a chilling show of bureaucracy, a coal-burning steam engine was attach...
more
A character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Kip Chalmers is a Washington man who has decided to run for election as Legislator from California. On the way to his campaign, the Taggart Transcontinental train that was carrying him encountered a split rail, resulting in the destruction of its diesel engine-at that point, one of the last of its kind left anywhere in the world. After a chilling show of bureaucracy, a coal-burning steam engine was attached to his train in its stead and used to pull it through an eight-mile tunnel. This action, for whom no one could later be blamed, resulted in suffocation of all passengers and the destruction of the Taggart Tunnel.
less
