Absolutely love the Aerotrain!! It's photo was on the cover of a book titled " The Wonderbook of Trains " which I used to check out of my elementary school library often. ( So often, in fact, that my teacher would not let me check it out until I checked out at least 2 other non train related books. ) I would just stare at that beautiful locomotive and dream.
At the time I thought it was the coolest train ever!
Obviously the General Motors auto designers had a large hand in creating this train. One would have to admit the designers of this train were thinking outside the "traditional" locomotive/train design box. Too bad GM did not work out the bugs with the original train sets and improve the design ( basically the suspension system ) to operate the Aerotrain as originally intended. Seeing one of those babies jet down the mainline at 100 mph in the late 50 thru the 60's would have been a beautiful sight! ( at least to me ) Perhaps the Aerotrian with its futuristic aerodynamic styling ( resembling space age tech, and sleek automobiles ... both of which were the dominate cultural craze at the time ) could have lured some of the traveling public back to the passenger train. I'd like to think that this train could have had the potential of becoming a real high speed train of its day .. capable of 125 mph or even more ... if GM had kept improving upon its original overall design. My guess is that GM didn't sense there was enough demand by the railroads and general public to warrant any further development.
Of course when I discovered that MTH made the Aerotrain, I had to have it. So I bought one with Pennsy markings. If one were ever produced in scale I'd definitely pull the trigger and buy it!
