# GM Aerotrain



## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Is there a model of this train? Looks great to me and it was made by GM no doubt with a hand from Harly Earl, back in 1954. They made two of them but they only lasted about a year because the ride wasn't very comfortable. They were given back to GM and I wonder what GM did with them? Pete


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Yes. They do exist in HO scale. Con-Cor is the most recent manufacturer of them and I think there was another a while ago.

They probably just scrapped them but I think I remember reading an article about how one was donated to a museum.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Hope they saved at least one of them. It would look good on the tracks today IMO. Pete


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Well your picture awnsered that question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrain_(GM)
right side your same above picture is indeed a preserved one.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

HUH! How bad is that. There it is,preserved in all it's glory and I didn't realize it. I got the picture off Google but didn't see the caption. SOOOOO. You can go there and see this train. Maybe someday-----. Thanks for the tip. Pete


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Looks like they stuck the top of a Belair on a train and called it aerodynamic. Like driving a 400 ton hot rod :thumbsup:


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Dawg ... that's TOO funny! But you're right ... it DOES look like a Belair crash landed on the roof!

TJ


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'm having a problem with the "rough ride", why would that be?


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

it did not use a standard springed truck suspension system. It used a air ride equipped system which was a somewhat new thing at the time and not fully developed to perfect. They also had a bad ride because of a standard car that has two or three axled bogies it had single axled bogies which limited the amount of wheight being transfered from the car to the track so you don't get as smooth a ride and feel every bump. It is the same kind of thing as if you were driving a 18 wheeler on a smooth road with a few bumps here and there compared to a car with four going down that same road. The more contact with the ground/rail that's constant the smoother the ride.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

OK, I never saw anything on this loco.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

It definatly is one of the more unknowns. I mainly started learning aobut it because of my MTH aerotrain set my dad bought one year and was intrigued to try and figure out what the heck it was and when I found out it was a real prototype and not just an ad one like the coors train I was amazed they were that dareing ever in RR history.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Apparently, MTH made an O-gauge model as well, so you can go HO or O with the GM Aerotrain.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/cco/cco8746.htm

HO scale version. I'm at wwork so I cant post it up, but the back of these trains looks like the back of a Belair too. It's like GM took the car, added a massive engine and about 300 feet of length and called it a train. Not too original 

Edit: the gov computer is co-operating today so here it is.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Sure, but you gotta' admit it's unique.


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## don r (Sep 18, 2009)

I saw it back in the fifties when it was being run on the New York Central. It stopped in Syracuse at the passenger station and my grandfather, an engineer on the central, took me up to see it. Very impressive for the time.

Don R


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## DonW (Mar 25, 2012)

I read somewhere the Rock Island used theirs for commuter service after failing as a long haul train, but that only lasted a couple years. The big issue was the cars were semi attached permanently to one another so any failure in one car took the whole train out service.


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## Murv2 (Nov 5, 2017)

The preserved part is one engine and car iirc, at the National Transportation Museum in St Louis.


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## Trackjockey05 (Jun 30, 2020)

The cars on these were actually GM bus bodies modified for this, very rough ride, the locomotive was only 3 axles, 2 of these sets were built, one of them even ran on UP as the City of Las Vegas running between LA and Vegas, a service that didn't last very long, both sets ultimately ended on Rock Island, the National Railway museum in Green Bay WI, and the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood MO both have a locomotive and 2 coaches displayed, its assumed the rest of the coaches were scrapped


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