What's up with the trains

[Space Communist]

Originally Posted by DayGlow

Please show the math that it isn't possible.

The math would not be all that bad, assuming certain simplifications. However it's quite unnecessary. Consider that a P-51 weighs about 9000 pounds. Now I have found that locomotives vary hugely in mass, but let's assume a 50 (imperial) ton locomotive, which is on the low end. That's 100 000 pounds.

The forces subjected on the locomotive cannot be more than the forces of recoil subjected on the aircraft. In fact since a great deal of energy will be expended by the bullets in puncturing the metal of the locomotive, it will in fact be much less, but the force of recoil is an extreme upper limit. If the energy in the bullets was sufficient to throw a train--weighing over 10 times as much as the aircraft--off its tracks then the aircraft would come to a dead stall after only a very short burst. Myths about the A-10 included, this is patently ridiculous.

Oh and of course this is just the locomotive itself, it becomes even more absurd if you consider the mass of the train cars.