"Freight-train like" speed - new metaphor needed? (MEDIA) additions

The Associated Press reports from Australia: "Officials said panic and the freight-train speed of the walls of flames probably accounted for the unusually high death toll."

Since when were freight trains a metaphor for speed? What's this AAR propaganda?

Freight trains are loud certainly, but fast?

You wonder whether these AP guys have ever sat at a grade crossing watching the freight train rumble slowly by. They go on for ever.

Any car can outrun a freight train. And of course fires.

Average speed of freight trains is less than 20mph (32km/hr) in the US and hasn't increased since the 19th century. Australian freight trains aren't any faster. Europe's highspeed rail is strictly for passenger trains.

Almost everywhere in the world freight trains are slow, rattling along at much slower speeds than cars or trucks, the reason, along with the road/rail and rail/road trans-shipments near the trip ends, that so little high value freight moves by rail anymore. 10% goes by rail in the US, lesser percentages in most other countries. 

Speed restrictions are part of the reason but most freight trains operate at well below those limits. Wear and tear, and derailments go up exponentially with high running speeds on this 19th century technology. 

http://www.4rr.com/INTRO/speed_001.htm

The bushfires in Australia were propelled by 60mph (100km/hr) winds so no doubt they spread a lot faster than any freight train could go.

So guys get a better speed metaphor.

"At 18 wheeler speed" would capture the sense better.

ADDITION: A reader suggests the AP reporter is mangling an old Superman metaphor “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive” by condensation to "faster than a speeding locomotive."

Actually the most vivid metaphors come from some of the people who survived the fires and described them by analogy with the speed and power of jet aircraft and the speed of electricity:

"Peter Thorp is one Kinglake resident who wants to rebuild. Standing in the rubble of his collapsed house, the Salvation Army worker holds a tiny blue jug, about the only object left intact on his shattered property.

"We had no warning. All of a sudden it sounded like two jets coming over. I thought that must be thunder or something but it wasn't. The sky was like someone had dropped a bomb. I'll never forget.

"(The fire) sounded like a 707 (he's aging himself there - TRnews) taking off at Tullamarine (Melbourne's main airport). It was so fast. It was like electricity, mate. It was unbelievable. You thought you were going to die."

He said he crashed through the fire (in his truck), returning to his property. Embers were raining down like hailstones. He grabbed his cat and drove into town, but the entire main street was engulfed in flames.

Eventually, Thorp and other panicked residents took refuge on a burnt-out piece of land, thinking it couldn't burn twice. They were right." end (from Ewin Harran THE AUSTRALIAN Feb 12, 2009)

TOLLROADSnews 2009-02-10 ADDITION 2009-02-11