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The AeroTrain
name is recognized by most model railroaders, and
yet finding good information about it has been a
challenge.
Brief History:
There were two AeroTrain consists (train #1000 and
train #1001). Built in 1955 and debuted at the 1955
"GM Powerama" which was held at Soldier's Field
just south of Downtown Chicago. At the same show GM
showed a Solar Powered Automobile (Geeze this was
51 years ago!) -and still no solar automobiles.
The two AeroTrain demonstrator sets logged over
600,000 miles traveling coast to coast and were
open to the public for viewing in many major
cities.
In addition to the roads listed below that we can
verrify used the AeroTrain is regular service, we
know it also ran on many other railroads such as
the Southern Pacific, New Haven, Canadian National,
and spent a couple of months in Mexico.
Anyone who can help with photos of the AeroTrain
running on other railroads would be appreciated.
Just send us an Email on what you have. (Click on
Email link at the bottom of this page.)
Today you can find parts of one Train Set at the
Museum in St. Louis, and parts of the other Train
Set at the Museum in Green Bay. The one in St.
Louis was cosmeticly restored about 5 years ago
using a $10,000 donation from the NMRA.
The Consist of each AeroTrain
Each AeroTrain consisted of the locomotive unit, 8
40 seat coaches and the tail end observation car. A
total of 10 units per train set. The Locomotive
used the drive train off the SW-1200 switcher
(regeared so it could hit a top speed of 102 mph),
and the car bodies were built using parts from an
inter-city bus body that GM was building at the
time.
The GM Designer responsible for the AeroTrain
project Charles "Chuck" Jordan is retired and
living in Southern California. "Chuck" was very
helpful in confirming design specifications and
details of the AeroTrain. "Chuck" was the primary
designer of the 1958 Corvette, and was named
Cadillac’s Chief of Design in 1959. We owe a
huge "THANK YOU" to Chuck for his help on this
project.
Details on Con-Cor's "HO" Model:
Con-Cor will offer the AeroTrain in a basic set of
4 units, the Locomotive 2 coaches and the
Observation car. And "add-on" sets of 3 more
coaches will be offered. So a modeler can buy the
basic 4 unit set, plus one "add-on" coach set to
make a 7 car "AeroTrain", or buy 2 of the "add-on"
coach sets to reproduce the full 10 car prototype
train.
Features:
- Highly
detailed bodies, with separate add on parts
where appropriate.
- Diaphrams
between cars
- Full
interior details
- LED interior
car lightling with circuit boards in each
car
- Electrical
pick-up and metal wheelsets on all
cars
- Dual
flywheel drive
- 5 pole
scewed armature motor
- Functional
reversing front headlights, and tail of
observation back up lights.
- Flashing
front headlights (in DCC mode) as Prototype used
for Grade Crossings
- Will come
with a dual function circuit board and chips for
Analog (normal 12v DC) or basic DCC Functions
built in.
- NMRA pin
array mounted on Circuit board for Optional
installation of sound DCC (end user supplies
Sound Decoder, and speaker if
desired).
- Loco Cab
interior
First run
Special Edition Collector's Box.
We are working
on some additional collector's paper to be included
with First Run Collector's Box. So if anyone out
there has AeroTrain Timetables, brochures etc that
we may borrow to copy and include with the set
packaging we would like to hear from you. Any
copies we make will be marked "as copies" so the
value of the Original Collector's material will not
be diminished.
The AeroTrain
will be as faithfully reproduced as we can make it.
It is designed so you can just buy the basic 4 car
set and it will run just fine as a 4 car train with
all the features. But it will be easy to add the
extra "Add-on" car set(s) to make a longer train if
you so choose either immediately, or at a later
date.
Size of
production run will be determined by number of
advance orders we receive. Do not be disappointed
reserve yours as early as possible.
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