But history he made. On that fateful day Wetzel piloted the train to a speed of nearly 184 mph and the car rocketed from Butler, Ind., to Stryker, Ohio. To this day it holds the record for being the fastest self-propelled train. Wetzel said in the video below that he would have pushed the train even faster had he known his exact speed, and "sure as hell" would have beat the land speed record at the time, which was 202 mph.