#4, the General Motors "Aerotrain", would give a new meaning to the word "bustitute".
Richard
PullmanCo Member # 1138
posted
Aerotrain served Union Pacific as the first City of Las Vegas.
GM, if you will recall, built the "Train of Tomorrow" postwar with an E-7 and 4 domes. The cars were built by PS (Diner, Coach, obs lounge, sleeper). It got sold to UP.
Aerotrain was an effort to bring the coach-building in-house.
palmland Member # 4344
posted
On a summertime return from our annual visit to grandparents in Tennessee, I was on the St. Louisan in the Nashville to NY sleeper. I did not remember the year until this topic prompted me to google it and found this article on the Aerotrain . PRR kept it less than a year after leasing it in Feb. 1956. You can bet our nose was pressed against the window when we saw the Aerotrain somewhere east of Altoona. Our reaction: that's a weird looking train.
PullmanCo Member # 1138
posted
IIRC the leases all were relatively short, less than a year.
Kratville, in UP Streamliners, IIRC said the issue was the narrowness of the coaches. They really could not seat 4 to railroad standards. (Remember, a Sleepy Hollow reclining seat then is still roughly equivalent to a 1st class airline seat now).
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
posted
Mr. Pullman, I recall during the '50's reading in Popular Mechanics, that the cars had additional width over the GM Highway Traveler bus from which they were adapted. However, it would appear that width was not sufficient for UP.
Never rode 'em; only saw them parked at La Salle St when they had been bumped down to Rock Island commuter service.
PullmanCo Member # 1138
posted
GBN,
You can adjust para 2 now. When you have, I'll drop this. I changed the wording to Sleepy Hollow, you were right.
posted