photo: James Vaughan / Flickr/GM Aerotrain
The Aerotrain was supposed to be the train of the future, capable of rescuing America’s struggling railways in the 1950s. With coaches built from bus bodies and styling inspired by well-known cars, it attracted plenty of attention. Once it entered service, however, the train turned out to be a disaster.
After the Second World War, road transport expanded rapidly in the United States. Most people switched from trains to cars and later to aircraft, and American railways in the 1950s were losing large amounts of money. Rail companies needed new ideas that could bring passengers back to the tracks.
General Motors (GM) wanted to come up with a cheap and elegant solution. That solution was the Aerotrain, which the company officially unveiled in 1955 at Soldier Field stadium in Chicago. With its futuristic appearance, the train looked as if it had been taken straight from a space-age magazine. GM promised a speed of 100 mph, around 160 km/h.
A Mix of a Bus and a Chevrolet on Rails
In the 1950s, GM was best known as a manufacturer of buses and cars under brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick. That was exactly where the designers found inspiration for the revolutionary Aerotrain. The coaches were essentially copies of GMC bus bodies, widened by 45 centimetres and mounted on lightweight frames. The nose of the train was inspired by the 1951 Buick LeSabre, while the interior and colour scheme resembled the Chevrolet Nomad.
With the Aerotrain, design and low costs clearly came first. The developers paid much less attention to the technical details. To keep the weight down, the train was built from aluminium. The bus-derived coaches were deliberately designed so that, if one suffered a serious fault, it could simply be replaced with an entirely new car. GM considered this cheaper than carrying out extensive repairs.
The Aerotrain Makes Its Grand Railway Debut
After a spectacular launch in which General Motors presented the Aerotrain as a possible saviour of American rail travel, the train finally entered service in February 1956. More precisely, two trainsets had been built at that point. One of them went to an operator in Pennsylvania, which used it between New York and Washington.
But after the very first day, the excitement quickly faded. It became clear that the bus-derived body was not particularly good at absorbing the vibrations of a moving train. Passengers sitting in Chevrolet-style seats were thrown from side to side and complained about the high level of noise.
The second trainset went to New Mexico. There, the Aerotrain failed for another reason: performance. GM had fitted its futuristic train with an engine producing a relatively modest 1,200 horsepower. Incidentally, local shunting locomotives used engines of similar power, so the Aerotrain struggled on hilly terrain and, in some places, had to be hauled by a more powerful locomotive.
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From Train of the Future to Museum Exhibit
Eventually, both Aerotrains ended up in Illinois. Rock Island bought them from GM at a substantial discount. For roughly the next ten years, the supposed trains of the future operated on a suburban route where there were no steep hills and no need for the higher speeds that had made the ride so uncomfortable for passengers.
In 1966, the Aerotrain’s time in regular service came to an end and both trainsets were withdrawn. One of them can still be seen today at the National Railroad Museum, where it is reportedly one of the more popular curiosities on display.