Aerotrain (GM)

This article is about the passenger train consist built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division.

For the hovercraft train developed in France from 1965 to 1975, see Aérotrain.

The Aerotrain makes its debut in 1955.

The Aerotrain is a streamlined trainset introduced by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in the mid-1950s. Like all of GM's great body designs of this mid-century era, this futuristic train was first brought to life in Harley Earl's GM Styling Section. It utilized the experimental EMD LWT12 locomotive (essentially an EMD SW1200 switcher engine geared for high-speed passenger service and wrapped in an aerodynamic shell), coupled to a set of modified General Motors 40-seat intercity bus coach bodies. The cars each rode on two axles with an airbag suspension system, which was intended to give a smooth ride but had the opposite effect.

History

GM's Aerotrain, in service as the City of Las Vegas, makes a station stop on its way to Los Angeles in 1957.

The two Aerotrain demonstrator sets logged over 600,000 miles and saw service on the following railroads:

• the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway;
• the New York Central Railroad;
• the Pennsylvania Railroad; and
• the Union Pacific Railroad.

In 1956 Aerotrain No. 2 was leased as a demonstrator to the New York Central, and operated between Cleveland and Chicago. In the summer of 1957 it was operated by the Union Pacific as the City of Las Vegas, running between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The train eventually found itself in Chicago commuter service on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

GM's "lightweight with a heavyweight future" was introduced at a time when U.S. passenger train revenues were steadily declining due to competition from airlines and private automobile travel. Although it featured an eye-catching, streamlined design, the Aerotrain failed to capture the imagination of the American public. The cars, based on GM bus designs and using an air cushioning system, were rough riding and not very comfortable for the passengers. The design of the locomotive section rendered even routine maintenance extremely difficult and time-consuming. The locomotive unit was underpowered. Eventually, both trainsets were retired after only a decade's use in 1966. Today, Aerotrain No. 1 is on permanent display at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, while No. 2 resides at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Disneyland operated a scale version of the Aerotrain, known as the Viewliner, from 1957 to 1959 (see below). Since 1958, the Washington Park and Zoo Railway in Portland, Oregon has operated a scale, diesel-powered replica of the Aerotrain (dubbed the Zooliner) to transport zoo patrons along a one-mile route around the perimeter of the zoo grounds.

Other uses of the name Aerotrain

• The Aérotrain, an experimental monorail system that rode on a thin cushion of compressed air (designated as a Tracked Air-Cushion Vehicle, or TACV), was developed in France under the supervision of engineer Jean Bertin between 1965–1975. In 1970, Chula Vista, California-based Rohr Industries, Inc. constructed a test vehicle for the project [1].
• Aerotrain is the name of an automated shuttle system that currently transports passengers between terminal buildings at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The Viewliner

The Viewliner prepares to depart the Tomorrowland Station in 1957, with none other than Walt Disney himself manning the controls.

On June 26, 1957, the narrow-gauge Santa Fe and Disneyland Viewliner (billed by Disneyland as "the fastest miniature train in the world") commenced operation. Two separate trains, designed and built as scale replicas of the futuristic Aerotrain, traveled along a figure-eight track through parts of Tomorrowland and Fantasyland parallel to a portion of the DLRR main line. The Tomorrowland train featured cars that were named for the planets, while the cars of the Fantasyland train were named after various Disney characters.

The modern, streamlined trains were placed into service to represent the future of rail travel, in contrast to the steam-powered DLRR which represented its past. Motive power for each train consisted of an integral head-end unit driven by an Oldsmobile "Rocket" V8 gasoline engine. Oldsmobile also furnished the windscreen, doors and instrument console for each of the two 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) locomotives. The attraction operated until September 15, 1958, when construction began on the Matterhorn and Submarine Voyage; the Disneyland Monorail System ultimately took the place of the Viewliner in June of the following year.

External links

• The Aerotrain / GM's Most Modern Train at Automotive Hollywood: The Battle for Body Beautiful.
• GM's "Dream Train": The Aerotrain article by Tony Roan.
• General Motors' Aerotrain Diesel Locomotive and Passenger Train Set at the National Railroad Museum.
• The Failure of the Aerotrain article by Joseph M. Sherlock.
• Washington Park and Zoo Railway — operator of the Zooliner, a scale replica of the Aerotrain.
• Bowser Manufacturing HO scale Aerotrain — includes a number of prototype photographs.