UAC TurboTrain
As Turbotrain from the be United Aircraft Corporation developed high-speed trains with gas turbine drive called that from 1969 to 1976 in the United States and from 1968 to 1982 in Canada were used.
development
In September 1965, the US Congress passed the High Speed Ground Transportation Act to promote high-speed travel on US railways . It formed the basis for the Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project , a public-private partnership between the US Department of Transportation and several railway companies to accelerate passenger traffic by rail in the Northeast Corridor Washington - New York - Boston . Of shifts with locomotives hauled trains on the section of Washington New York procurement was Metroliner - railcars decided, while the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) with the development of a driven by gas turbines trainset , the Turbotrain not for use on the then continuously electrified connection New York – Boston was commissioned. In January 1966, two three-part trains were ordered, which from 1968 were to be leased by UAC to the US Department of Transportation and the New Haven Railroad for an initial two years . In May 1966, the Canadian National Railway also ordered five TurboTrains for its services between Toronto and Montreal .
Structure and technology
Taking into account unrealized plans of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from the 1950s, UAC developed the TurboTrain multiple units in less than two years, which were formed from two motorized end cars ( power cars ) and a variable number of intermediate cars. Following the aircraft originated streamlined vehicles in lightweight construction made of aluminum , with the intermediate cars including through the use of Jakobs bogies cm lower than conventional 75 railway cars could be executed. In the power cars, the operator's stations for the train drivers and a compartment (“observation lounge”) for passengers were arranged in an attached pulpit, which gave the trains a striking appearance and allowed the drive systems to be arranged in a space-saving manner. It was also possible to plan a corridor up to the Zugspitze, where there were side-hinged doors (“clamshells”) running over the entire height of the vehicle. This enabled a transition option to be created between two coupled TurboTrain units.
The TurboTrain was equipped with passive tilting technology with the aim of being able to negotiate curves faster with the same or improved comfort for the passengers . For this purpose, the connection between the car bodies and the chassis was only established above the center of gravity of the car by a suspension. The passenger cars, which were also designed on the inside based on airplanes, were air-conditioned and were under slight overpressure to make the penetration of dust more difficult. Depending on the layout, around 50 seats were available in the intermediate cars as well as in the power cars. Individual cars had a small galley.
In the power heads there were seven receiving shafts for the diesel fuel operated gas turbines of the type ST6 (a variant of the aircraft engine PT6 ) with an output of almost 300 kW each. The number of turbines actually installed was based on the requirements. While one always operated the ancillary services such as the air conditioning , the others were connected to a generator , which in turn supplied the traction motors on the wheelsets of the external bogie of the power car. Since the use of the gas turbines on the underground access routes to Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in New York was prohibited, the traction motors could also be operated using the side busbars installed there .
The nominal maximum speed of the TurboTrain was 120 mph (193 km / h), in operation up to 160 km / h were reached. In test drives , however , these speeds were clearly exceeded; so on December 20, 1967 with a peak value of 170.8 mph (274.9 km / h). On April 22, 1976, a TurboTrain with 140.6 mph (226.2 km / h) set the speed record for rail vehicles in Canada that is still valid today .
commitment
United States
The first of the two TurboTrain trains ordered by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) left the Pullman plant in Chicago , which UAC had commissioned with assembly, in May 1967 to undertake extensive test drives. After the completion of the second train, it was handed over to the Ministry of Transport and the New Haven Railroad on October 21, 1968 . However, the vehicles were only used on schedule from April 8, 1969 after numerous teething problems had been resolved. They made it possible to reduce the travel time between New York and Boston from 4 hours 15 minutes to 3 hours 39 minutes, but were considered unreliable.
As a result of the insolvency of the New Haven Railroad from January 1, 1969, the train operator was initially Penn Central , which then incorporated its rail passenger service into the newly founded Amtrak on May 1, 1971 . In 1971, Amtrak ordered four additional TurboTrain intermediate cars from UAC in order to extend the previously only three-part trains from 1972 to five-part trains. While the Ministry of Transport announced its withdrawal from the TurboTrain project on January 29, 1973 and the lease agreements for the two own trains were consequently transferred to Amtrak, Amtrak was able to acquire an additional four-part set from Canada in the same year. However, the trains still did not have high availability and were also expensive to operate due to their low capacity, so that the operations were finally ended with the last run on September 8, 1976 and the vehicles were decommissioned.
Canada
The five TurboTrain multiple units ordered by the Canadian National Railway (CN) for use between Toronto and Montreal were assembled by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) on behalf of the UAC . Originally, seven-part sets were formed, which were to be combined into 14-part trains as required. The first multiple unit went into operation in December 1968 and enabled the travel time from Toronto to Montreal to be shortened from 4 hours 50 minutes to 3 hours 59 minutes according to the timetable . Initially, however, the TurboTrain vehicles did not meet the requirements of railway operations, especially in winter; numerous failures were the result. After a change in the operational concept of the CN, the trains were combined into three nine-part sets in 1973. Two of the thus redundant power cars and intermediate cars were sold to Amtrak, another set intended for sale was damaged in an accident .
After eliminating the initial deficiencies, the trains operated there under the brand name “Turbo” proved their worth in Canada and achieved a high availability of up to 97%. The three remaining sets of the CN were sold in 1978 to the VIA Rail Canada , based on the model of Amtrak, and continued to be used between Toronto and Montreal, where they were gradually replaced and scrapped by the newly acquired LRC trains between 1979 and 1982 .
literature
- Jason Shron: TurboTrain: A Journey . Rapido Trains Inc., Concord, Ontario 2008, ISBN 0-9783611-0-5 .
- Wolfgang Stoffels: Turbotrains international . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1983, ISBN 978-3-7643-1172-8 .
Web links
- TurboTrain photos in the railpictures.net image database
- Further TurboTrain photos in the same image database
- Information and photos about the Turbo Train can be found at www.hochsitzszuege.com
Individual evidence
- ^ High-Speed Ground Transportation Act; Pub. L. 89-220, Sept. 30, 1965, 79 Stat. 893
- ↑ a b "TurboTrain: Rail Speed, Convenience, Comfort": Brochure from the UAC subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft, which is entrusted with the marketing . Online version at sikorskyarchives.com
- ^ Richard Carr: By rail the future . In: Design Magazine, issue 223, Jan. 7, 1967; P. 25. Excerpts available online
- ^ "Dedication of plaque commemorating high speed rail in America" on the website of the (American) National Capital Land Transportation Committee
- ^ "TurboTrain Acceptance Ceremony" : Scan of the invitation to handover the TurboTrain trains on October 21, 1968
- ↑ Jack Swanberg: New Haven Power . Wayner Publications, New York 1988, ISBN 0-944-5130-9-3 ; P. 519
- ↑ Late Arrival Of The Fast Trains in Time Magazine on January 3, 1969
- ↑ Jason Shron: TurboTrain: A Journey . Rapido Trains Inc., Concord, Ontario 2008, ISBN 0-978-3611-0-5