#turbotrain

[mudwerks]

(via JHALAL DRUT: turbotrain)

[railwayhistorical]

Grayland

This is an outbound train headed for Milwaukee just eight miles out from Chicago Union Station, at Grayland.

We're on the Milwaukee Road and the equipment is the French RTG, or so-called Turboliner, operated by Amtrak.

The train will soon cross over a north/south line of the C&NW, with Mayfair just beyond that.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken September 5th 1976.

[merpmonde]

"Stick an aircraft engine in it" part 2b - the TGV

"Wait, the TGV's electric, right?", I hear you say. You're not wrong: all TGVs in commercial service since 1981 have been electric. But this is the 1972 prototype TGV, and back then, those initials stood for Turbotrain à Grande Vitesse, continuing the development cycle of trains with helicopter engines that had already been introduced on intercity services with the RTG.

This prototype would set the standard of what French high speed rail would become: articulated units of carriages between two power cars, and the distinctive, iconic orange livery I wish they would have kept around in some capacity. The train regularly ran over 300 km/h, peaking at 318 km/h in Southwestern France in December 1972. The difference, of course, is that TGV 001 was equipped with four helicopter-derived gas turbines, two in each power car. As the oil crises hit before the production TGV was properly defined, SNCF were able to redesign the project around electric power in time for the 1980s.

After 15 years of service as a test mule, the train was due to be scrapped, but fortunately the two power cars avoided that fate. Their interiors were gutted, but the cars were saved and put on display as monuments to their builders, Alsthom, at Belfort and Bischheim (North suburb of Strasbourg). UNfortunately, they've been put by the motorway of all places, at both sites, so visiting them isn't very pleasant. At least at Bischheim, there is a footpath on the bridge over the motorway and railway yard, so it's possible to take one's time and get some decent views of the machine that started it all.

[aryburn-trains]

Penn Central United Aircraft Turbo Train is heading eastbound on the former New Haven Railroad electrified main line after it just crossed the bridge over Main Street in South Norwalk, Connecticut, 1970

Penn Central United Aircraft Turbo Train is heading eastbound on the former New Haven Railroad electrified main line after it just crossed the bridge over Main Street in South Norwalk, Connecticut, 1970. Bob Hughes captured this image on film.

[fanofi]

Turbotrain • Lyon -Strasbourg

~ Eric (Raoul Eric Castel, French, 1915-1997), circa 1972

[spockvarietyhour]

the Canadian National Railways' Turbo Train ran from 1968 to 1982 in the Montreal-Toronto corridor but was plagued with early technical issues and, while it did hit a record speed of 140 mph in 1976, typically it ran more between 80-100 mph. 

[chwiggy]

Amtrak UAC TurboTrain

Me, Ink and Coloured Pencil on Paper, May 2021

A very bulbous train...

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[radicallyretro]

Yesterday’s Trains of Tomorrow

Some wild experimental and some trains that were in actual service.

Schienenzeppelin - German propeller propelled train

The Aérotrain - a French Hover train

UAC TurboTrain

M-497 ‘The Black Beetle’ - New York Central System Jet Engine Loco

General Motors - Aerotrain

AFC’s TALGO I

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