The TurboTrain - The Sikorsky Aircraft Promotional Film

Рет қаралды 48,112

2 жыл бұрын

Released originally by the Surface Transportation Systems of Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Aircraft in 1968. Includes excellent footage of the TurboTrain demonstration runs.
From the original Sikorsky Aircraft promo material released with the film: "A sleek, new lightweight passenger train, the Turbo-Train, enters service in 1968 in the United States and Canada. The TurboTrain is lighter, faster, quieter, smoother and more reliable than conventional trains -and cheaper to run. The TurboTrain, conceived on aerodynamic principles, and powered by aircraft-type gas turbine engines, was designed by United Aircraft Corpo-ration. It is being developed and marketed by Surface Transportation Systems, Sikorsky Aircraft Division.
The TurboTrain is a modern, streamlined, high-speed intercity passenger train designed by aerospace engineers and based on the principles of flight.
Powered by aircraft-type gas turbine engines, it was designed to provide comfortable, high performance service on existing railroad trackage. The TurboTrain can travel at speeds up to 170 mph but initial top speeds in passenger-carrying service this year will be about 120 mph. "
This film is being posted for educational purposes only. To learn more about the CN UAC TurboTrain, visit the largest audio and video collection of Turbo links at High Speed Rail Canada - www.highspeedrailcanada.com

Пікірлер: 75

@XxBec3509 Күн бұрын

Greetings from England. The turbo train looks great.

@bernardmueller5676 20 күн бұрын

Funny that they blame the TurboTrain for failing and NOT the bad track condition as well as the many railroad crossings.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 18 күн бұрын

Yes track quality definitely played a part in the Turbo's demise.

@uncinarynin Жыл бұрын

They should have preserved one in a museum.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

very sad indeed none were saved

@Bammer2001 Ай бұрын

They were all scrapped. 😭

@richardjames3356 22 күн бұрын

The American attitude to history right there. Bin it

@therandomytchannel4318 9 күн бұрын

Yes, I often wonder why turbine technology never really caught on in the railway industry. Steam or gas, that Baldwin turbine locomotive was massive 🎉

@thatguycarmine1 Күн бұрын

@@richardjames3356A very good principle.

@rontroy3843 2 жыл бұрын

I rode a Turboliner from GCT to Boston many years ago and back; smooth, quiet, great experience.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

nice to hear.

@timtim8468 3 күн бұрын

Using right angle gear boxes, we can add as much engines as we please. We don't worry about fuel economy, noise, we're just zipping from downtown of one city, to another, in comfort!

@fiatfan83 24 күн бұрын

LOVE that the Granatelli Turbine got a shout out in this.

@trainglen22 26 күн бұрын

Loved the early morning Turbo from Montreal to Toronto. Faster than the current Via trains these days.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 18 күн бұрын

true!

@phillydisco 6 күн бұрын

A passenger rail that goes fast needs a dedicated rail. In Japan, they have many sections raised.

@dancostello6465 Жыл бұрын

Only train I ever liked. Knew a lot about UAC back then. For years one of these was sitting in Moncton on a siding. Those were too cool for school. They had some teething problems. Tracks were too old to got fast on. Brakes needed tweaking. Etc.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

very cool for sure.

@BudTheDrummer Жыл бұрын

I saw the first Turbo Trains to hit the New Haven in the mid to late '60's. They looked and sounded spectacular, especially when they spooled up after stopping for a red signal.But they proved troublesome and were sold off quickly.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

thanks for sharing the memory

@stickynorth Жыл бұрын

Still breaks my heart that this was well before I was born and yet runs faster than todays services which here in Alberta are close to 0...

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

so true.

@vincentb893 19 күн бұрын

There was a lot of really cool equipment a hundred years ago, like electric cars, commuter trolleys on every other street,100 mph trains,but for some reason they just disappeared

@johneddy908 Жыл бұрын

Sikorsky Aircraft is today part of Lockheed Martin.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

thanks for that info.

@johnblair8146 15 күн бұрын

@@Highspeedrailcanada1 United Aircraft changed its name to United Technologies Corporation in1975. It merged with Raytheon a few years ago and is now known as Raytheon Technologies.

@dmrr7739 3 күн бұрын

The soundtrack is hilarious! “The Turbotrain… in color!”

@desertmodern7638 12 күн бұрын

I was completely unaware of these. Gearboxes tend to be relatively high maintenance, so perhaps that was an issue. Diesel-electric and electric trains use of electric motors for power at the wheels would seem simpler and lower maintenance.

@christopherlucy1772 2 күн бұрын

NH..loved the light weight tilt a train idea..it had some success in Europe but never got off the groud here..service was a sore point on The..PC$$⚠️

@F7Aengineer 5 ай бұрын

This is amazing

@Highspeedrailcanada1 5 ай бұрын

It truly was.

@BHARGAV_GAJJAR Жыл бұрын

Doesn't hurt to put an aerodynamic low drag nose on every high speed train although I wouldn't apply direct mechanical power via 90 degree gear boxes that's gonna be bad. I would use turboprops to drive generators and put motors on each of the carriages

@Misophist 21 күн бұрын

That is actually how the ICE 3 works, every second carriage has one motorized bogey. This way, top speed doesn't depend on the length of the train, and both train ends can be used for seating right up to the engineer's cockpit.

@jimdieseldawg3435 18 күн бұрын

How To Compete With Airlines. 1, add wheels to a fuselage. 2, use turbine power but not with direct thrust utilisation nor driving efficient multi-bladed variable-pitch propellers. 3, use complex and unproven gearboxes to funnel shaft-drive directly to some of the wheels, completely ignoring the facts that (a) driving a generator or alternator to provide current to traction motors had already long been proven to be more efficient; (b) that decades of locomotive experience had clearly proven the superior reliability of power-electric drive over power-mechanical (and power-hydraulic) drive; and (c) that UP had unequivocally demonstrated that even turbine-electric propulsion was excessively fuel-hungry compared to diesel-electrics of similar power to the rail and less than optimal in the reliability stakes. 4, run the passenger services at about a third of the speed of a period airliner due to the inconvenient presence of track curvature and altitude variations between and over annoyingly hard and unyielding geographical and man-made features. What could possibly go wrong?

@blainedunlap4242 18 күн бұрын

But they throughly tested the concept for all contingencies.

@troykirchhoefel9134 8 сағат бұрын

CN definitely pitched this train like a Boeing 747 on wheels with overpriced Concorde business class ticket prices. Hardly nobody could afford using this thing as a regular highspeed commuter train like you see in Europe and Asia today.

@samtrak1204 8 ай бұрын

There was so much hope and dreams that never materialized.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 7 ай бұрын

so true.

@CSX_Doolittle 2 жыл бұрын

Hmm that horn in the first clip reminds me of a certain manufacturer

@gargoyle7863 6 күн бұрын

Sikorsky's Great Gearbox Horror Show.

@jonathanchester5916 9 ай бұрын

Thanks auto lobbyists for crushing high speed rail in North America.

@voidjavelin23 8 ай бұрын

And thanks naive and easily mind controlled people for pushing auto lobbyist, you should need to go to school

@GBOAC 2 күн бұрын

You are posting this under a vid by a helicopter engine lobbyist

@demonmucker4734 Ай бұрын

Canada was great in the 70's

@PaulLangan Ай бұрын

Well said

@hanksenkow7313 27 күн бұрын

AND IS GREAT TODAY. POLILIER WOULD LOVE TO ROLL BACK PROGRESS & BECOME A WANNABE MINI-TRUMPER FASCIST DICTATOR.

@alexandermathar7780 6 ай бұрын

And they chose the PT6 with the least power rating! Imagine how fast it could have been with the 1300 HP PT6A-67! I think it could have hit 200 MPH !

@Highspeedrailcanada1 6 ай бұрын

track could not handle even the lower speeds unfortunately.

@tronn_carter 8 күн бұрын

Looks like a Florida Brightline train concept

@prakashd7397 Жыл бұрын

like concord this also a thing of past

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

sadly yes

@Perich29 7 ай бұрын

its a Concord on track.

@christopherlucy1772 2 күн бұрын

Living in Boston then having visited montreal..1972/1973 using via 2 toronto i never saw or rode It or rode Acela later & indy we went in 69!

@billwendell6886 18 күн бұрын

A few years ago there was one in Schoharie NY. There were a pile of them in Providence Ri for years. They were POS. Constantly breaking.

@johnblair8146 15 күн бұрын

Not the same trains. The ones you are thinking of were built By Rohr Aircraft using a French design.

@billwendell6886 9 күн бұрын

Thanks, I always had thought they were Bombardier.@@johnblair8146

@handymatt1970 4 ай бұрын

Sexy Turbo in silver w/blue 8:14

@mosquito7459 Күн бұрын

C'est vrai qu'on retrouve la silhouette du H 19 vu le nez de la motrice

@richardkudrna7503 21 күн бұрын

One issue they had was lack of torque from a start. So why couldn’t the electric motor be used there?

@billwendell6886 9 күн бұрын

They needed to keep the weight down. But a 2 speed transmission would have made sense. I wish there was more on the drivetrain tech out there.

@peterhogan9537 Жыл бұрын

why did they pull these trains out of service after only 12 years ?

@dancostello6465 Жыл бұрын

They were experimental and everything that could go wrong did. Then the engineering was far ahead and the market didn't have a profit earning position for a turbine train. They would have flown off tracks with full speed.

@Highspeedrailcanada1 9 ай бұрын

never were winter tested,and track quality they ran on was not great

@WA1LBK 23 күн бұрын

Reliability issues were the main culprit. I rode the Turbo only once, on the former New Haven railroad mainline, between Providence RI and New York City. From a railfan’s point of view, it was great sitting in the front seat of the power dome car & literally looking over the engineer’s shoulder! - I remember us passing the northbound Tropicana orange juice train with 3 bid 6-axle GE locomotives & about 100 cars (it’s much shorter these days). If you were in one of the coaches rather than the power dome car, the ride on the old New Haven’s jointed rail left a LOT to be desired, as the single- axle coaches wheelbase was about the same as a length of jointed rail, resulting in a loud “CLUNK - CLUNK, CLUNK- CLUNK”, noisy bumpy ride. This was in the Penn Central era, when the former New Haven mainline was in rough shape, in contrast to today’s smooth all - welded rail Northeast Corridor mainline. The ride in the Turbo’s coaches was basically similar to the failed experimental high - speed trains that Pat McGinnis foisted on the New Haven during his disastrous presidency in the 1950’s; trying to do high-speed rail “on-the-cheap” with Talgo - style trains while deterring proper track maintenance. In contrast, Talgo’s can deliver a smooth ride on PROPERLY MAINTAINED welded rail; Amtrak’s Talgo’s running in their Northwestern “Cascade” service are quite popular.

@jamesstuart3346 21 күн бұрын

I remember seeing the Turbo in ugly VIA yellow rotting in the Toronto yard...sad ending 😢

@Solar55 14 күн бұрын

@@WA1LBK Yeah I was 11 years old and obsessed with everything Turbo. My parents finally booked a trip as a surprise and to my dismay the Turbo arrived an hour late, being pulled by a regular diesel engine. No a/c in the coaches and it was a hot, slow, disappointing trip. :(

@j.sterling9167 18 күн бұрын

If they can't keep the tracks & roadbeds up to class 1 railroad standards then how can the tracks carry a train capable of 170 MPH when they can't even handle normal freight trains at 60 mph.

@billwendell6886 9 күн бұрын

LOL most of the time Acela runs 125 because they never got the right of ways straight enough, some places it hits 175. Built for constant 200. But it is something to be standing on the platform when does 125 thru the station. Every now and then some TikToker would get sucked into the side trying to get a vid be the vacuum. eeewwww. There is an "Acela" line 5 feet back in Attleboro, at least the last time I took the T.