America's Failed High Speed Tilting Train - The UAC Turbotrain

It was supposed to lead the US and Canada into a new high speed railway future but the UAC Turbotrain ended up being scrapped after just years in the US and in both countries they failed to deliver the speeds they were designed to run at and unlike other countries it showed you need more than just fast trains to have a high speed rail service.

Written, Researched and Presented by Paul Shillito
Images and Footage : UAC, Sikorsky, George E.O. Lilley, Virginia Crouse, Amtrack,
Canadian National Railwaways.

And as always a big thank you also goes out to all our Patreons :-)

Ἐριχθόνιος JL
Abrakodabra Kobra / 25%
Ai
Alipasha Sadri
Alistair Brown
Andrew Gaess
Andrew SMITH
Brian Kelly
Cameron Elliot
Carl Soderstrom
Charles Thacker
ChasingSol
Collin Copfer
Dom Riccobene
Dragoncorps
Etienne Dechamps
Florian Muller
George Bishop II
Henning Bitsch
Henri Saussure
inunotaisho
james t early
Jesse Postier
Jim Early
Johan Rombaut
john edwards
Jonathan Merage
Jonathan Travers
Joshua Rea - Dawn Aerospace
Ken Schwarz
L D
László Antal
Lawrence Brennan
Lorne Diebel
Pyloric
SHAMIR
stefan hufenbach
Steve J - LakeCountySpacePort
Tawn Kramer
Tomasz Leszczyński
Vincent
Will Lowe

Music from the Youtube library
Just Dance by Patrick Patrikios
Float by Emily A. Sprauge

[chrisroot]

I rode the Turbo between Toronto and Montreal a number of times. I always dashed up to get a seat in the bar area behind the engineers. There was a glass partition so you could see ahead down the tracks and watch the crew operate the train.

[Trainman]

Man, it’s devastating to hear that not a single one survived. I would have loved to see it in person.

[haweater]

Researchers have later found that one can overdo tilting on a train. A combination of tilting train and track can give you a sensation of a "level" floor when rounding a curve at speed, but a feeling of nausea when the view of the ground tilting outside becomes "disconnected" from your ear's balance sense accelerometer. Not much of a problem in a jet, banking into a turn above the clouds versus being a few feet from the ground on a train. The solution was to adjust the tilt mechanism to counter the centrifugal force by 70% instead of 100%, so people feel some cornering forces to correspond to the view outside.

[glennfrancis]

Took the Turbo a few times on trips to Toronto from Montreal (Dorval) when I was young. My brother and I would sit behind the engineer and conductor and watch in amazement as everything went by at 100 MPH. I do remember getting tossed around when you got up to walk through the cars.

[Francois_The_Photon_Mechanic]

My dad's uncle was in charge of the Turbo at United Aircraft. One of the big problems they had was that the tracks were not welded like on dedicated high speed rails. They ran the train so fast that the vibrations would loosen all the spikes!

[middlecam]

I remember watching the Turbo fly though the suburbs of Montreal as a kid. Amazing sound and looked really futuristic then! Like a 747 on the tracks...

[theylied]

The concept of high-speed rail in the United States was never really taken seriously after 1955. There were companies that researched it, but after the Interstate system was completed, heavy rail was only looked at as a means of transporting materials and goods, not people.

[ozenfant_ozn]

it might have had its flaws, but it just looks so frickin cool.

[Bluenoser]

My grandfather was the conductor on that VIA Turbo that burned to the ground. His brother-in-law was the conductor on the CN train that hit the meat truck on the inaugural run in Canada.

[dmikulec]

I rode that train from Boston to NYC in the early 1970s. It was great trip. The observation decks at either end of the train also held the train controls and engineers. Passengers could talk to the engineers while they were operating the train.

[donkmeister]

When Geddy Lee of Canadian band Rush sang "Jump to the ground as the Turbo slows to cross the borderline" I assumed it was an entirely fictional view of the future, I never realised there was genuinely a turbine train called the Turbo in Canada at the time!

[drboze]

The notion that going fast around a (relatively) flat curve would disturb passengers did not materialize. In the US, only the most senior engineers could bid on passenger trains. They were extremely skilled in train handling and could set up ahead of a curve to take it without slowing down.
While maintaining throttle, a quick reduction in brake pipe pressure would apply the brakes to the cars. In the time it took for the last car to apply its brakes, the engineer would release the brakes entering the curve. As a result, each car in turn would essentially float to the center line of the track without hitting the outside or inside rail with a wheel flange. To the passengers, the effect was as if they were riding on tangent track.

[MarkMcCluney]

I always enjoy that footage of the TGV overtaking the aeroplane. What a wonderful bit of PR that was.

[SaturnCanuck]

Thanks Paul, that was great. I remember seeing the VIA Rail turbo in Union Station in Toronto, but never rode one. Two things – the PT6 was developed by Pratt & Whitney Canada and, still in use today, is one of the best turboprop engines ever. Also, to correct you, it is Grand Central Terminal – Grand Central Station is a post office.

[ianriddell]

I love the whole style of traveling by train. Just feels more comfortable overall!

[jonathanedwards]

I rode the Amtrak turbo from Montreal to Grand Central Terminal NYC. It was called The Adirondack. When I would walk through GCT, I would see it and dream of taking a ride on it. I never thought it would actually happen. I'm so happy I had the opportunity to ride the Amtrak Turbo Train.

[mmcalifornia]

Shame that none of the train is on display at a museum. I would love to see the drive trian they used from jet to wheel..

[ericvreeland]

Great content as always. I remembered seeing pictures of these when I was a kid in the late 80s but had forgotten about them. Thank you for keeping this awesome part of our history from being forgotten.

[petera]

I rode this train when it ran between New York and Boston. I was going to visit a friend on Boston, and was in about 6th grade at the time. I was already totally into trains, and knew what it meant to get a ride on the TurboTrain. In Grand Central I managed to get on the train ahead of most people and so was able to sit directly behind the engineer. The plexi partition meant that you could look past the engineer and see ahead, which was in itself an incredible thing. I recall the Mars light sweeping the tunnel as we left GCT, and there was at least one other person in the cab with the engineer and fireman, I don't know why. At that time, third rail ended at Woodlawn in the Bronx. At that point we changed over from third rail; the engineer started the engines, which were quite audible. As I remember it, we saw a top speed of 105, which was through Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It was a fairly rough ride, but I think that was due more to the deferred maintenance ( I stil love that euphemism) of the New Haven's trackage than the performance of the train itself.

[nekomasteryoutube]

I love how Amtrak tried it for a short time but it ended up being more sucessful in Canada until it was replace in the 80's witht he Bombardier/MLW LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) which was another attempt at a "high speed" train with tilt, but could only run 180 km/h in certain area's with tilt enabled)