Where is the Like button?...can't find one here...Ok, I'll just say like it!
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I've looked at and pondered the styling of the Aerotrain for a long time. I still have a print given to my dad when he worked on the Aerotrain build team at the EMD plant. The Aerotrain borrowed many, many styling cues from GM's automobile division. The "grill" (if you can call it that on a locomotive) is very similar to what was used on the Oldsmobile X-8 and Buick Wildcat II concept cars of 1954. The wraparound windshield was used widely by GM at that time. The roofline is a mildly stretched version of those on mid-50's GM coupes and the 3-piece rear window section on the last car with wrap-around glass on the sides and single rectangular center piece is again reminiscent of another GM concept car of 1954, the Corvette-based Waldorf Nomad. I'm kind of surprised they didn't go so far as to put more chrome on it, or add "bullets" to the front bumper of that thing, again, ala Buick or Olds!
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I see it ended up as a commuter train before becoming a museum sensation. I saw the other set at Green Bay. It was not in the open so I could not get a shot. I should have adapted the European mind set for transportation way back. Now we are paying for it.
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Great photo, I had to settle for a cloudy day photo in winter not good enough for Railpics. Oh well. I do believe that it was also used for a short time as the "Peoria Rocket" between Chicago and Peoria, IL. I know that the Rock Island ran the "TA" style EMD locomotives and the articulated train sets, but I'm not completely sure about the Aerotrain.
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