Turbo - designs almost finished

[bbussey]

Awesome!

[peteski]

Looks like a flying train that eats other trains.  Very cool.  I don't model Canadian but I have always had a soft spot for these guys...If finances allow...I will get one of these for sure.

Joe

Joe, I thought that (despite working at MTL) your were modeling in H0.      Rapido produced the Turbo Train in H0 few years back.  Or are you a multi-scaler?

[Point353]

Looks like a flying train that eats other trains.  Very cool.  I don't model Canadian but I have always had a soft spot for these guys...If finances allow...I will get one of these for sure.

One of the US trains did pass through Oregon on tour: https://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/Trainmaster1971/TM-1971-09.pdf

[Point353]

I'm pretty sure they were only on the NE corridor in the US.

For a few months in '72, one of trains was used as the "Potomac Turbo" on a route between DC and WV.
http://www.american-rails.com/images/Evaro1971UAC.jpg
http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/met/216eturbotrainbyaramesrobian1972.jpg

[rapidotrains]

For a few months in '72, one of trains was used as the "Potomac Turbo" on a route between DC and WV.
http://www.american-rails.com/images/Evaro1971UAC.jpg
http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/met/216eturbotrainbyaramesrobian1972.jpg

Ah, yes... the pork barrel express.

North America's fastest train on a local run with jointed, low-speed track. Now THAT was a good use of resources!

-Jason

[jagged ben]

For regularly-scheduled service, yes, but Amtrak did a promotional tour in '71. I've found photos online showing they made it to Los Angeles and other points on the West Coast, as well as Florida.

I've been trying to find an itinerary for that tour, but so far no luck. However, I would bet it was documented in Trains.

Some clues:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/71027/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/71026/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/586596/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/586110/

[C855B]

Yes, I had already seen those. The Mission Tower pic and the one on the Coast with the clown hanging from the signal are choice.

[Point353]

Ah, yes... the pork barrel express.
North America's fastest train on a local run with jointed, low-speed track. Now THAT was a good use of resources!
-Jason

Close to 50 years ago, the ex-NH segment of the NEC was far from an all welded rail racetrack:
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/3/9/2/1392.1216599065.jpg

[GaryHinshaw]

Yes, I had already seen those. The Mission Tower pic and the one on the Coast with the clown hanging from the signal are choice.

I was hoping to see a circus clown hanging from a signal.  I'm disappointed. 

[nkalanaga]

That tour made it to Pasco, WA, but I don't remember which way they were going.  My pictures aren't much help, as it was parked at the station, and both ends look the same...  There were only 4 ways it could go from Pasco in the 70s, assuming it stayed on the BN.

[jagged ben]

Since it came to WA from the south, it probably left to the east.  Evidently nobody saw it in that 'great chasm in the middle of the country' though. 

[C855B]

Yeah, that's what I'm puzzling over. It came into L.A. via ATSF or SP (UP unlikely), went down to San Diego (Fullerton picture intimates that), and then worked all the way up the SP Coast Line, then to Seattle. Pasco must have been eastbound with the trainset having gone back south to Portland for the river-level line, and I can edu-guess it followed the Empire Builder route back to Chicago.

Really curious about the route into L.A.

> ...Evidently nobody saw it in that 'great chasm ...

No surprise, considering that this was a one-time event, so if you weren't in a publicized city you had to have been right-place-right-time. This has been my general experience in finding documentation of rail activity in the American Outback in the '60s and '70s. Railfan interest in the region plummeted after steam (I'd be depressed, too), so outside of a few stalwarts there's not much out there.

[Missaberoad]

There were many prolific Twin cities railfans at that time. If it made it through Minneapolis/St Paul it likely would have been documented.

Not concrete evidence by any means but the lack of photos make me think it went a different way...

Would love to be proven wrong tho

[nickelplate759]

This links to a page from a book called "Amtrak in the Heartland"  that says the Amtrak United Aircraft Turbo visited Milwaukee September 2nd 1971.
No photo though.

Here's a photo of it in Chicago (from an eBay listing).  No date though.

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[milw156]

I was on it in Chicago Union Station IIRC in late '71 or early '72. Pretty sure I still have the large post card photos they were handing out on the tour. It was pretty cool to see in person, like nothing else!
Rick