The Turboliners were a family of gas turbine trainsets built for Amtrak in the 1970s. They were among the first new equipment purchased by Amtrak to update its fleet with faster, more modern trains. The first batch, known as RTG, were built by the French firm ANF and entered service on multiple routes in the Midwestern United States in 1973. The new trains led to ridership increases wherever used, but the fixed consist that made up a Turboliner train proved a detriment as demand outstripped supply. The high cost of operating the trains led to their withdrawal from the Midwest in 1981.
An RTG Turboliner at Union Station in St Louis, Missouri in 1974
A conductor collects tickets aboard a Midwestern Turboliner in 1974.
An RTL Turboliner crosses the Seneca River near Savannah, New York, in 1984
Interior on an RTL train in 1988
A gas turbine locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a gas turbine. Several types of gas turbine locomotive have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels (drivers). A gas turbine train typically consists of two power cars, and one or more intermediate passenger cars.
A 44-ton 1-B-1 experimental gas turbine locomotive designed by R. Tom Sawyer and built in 1952 for testing by the U.S. Army Transportation Corps
UP 18, a gas turbine-electric locomotive preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum
Diagram of a gas turbine-electric locomotive
1942 publicity photo of Am 4/6 number 1101
