Get your locomotive on...

What with talking about Canada's Turbo Train, we failed to include a photo of the infamous train. In fact it acutually was put into regular service not just in Canada, but also in the US. However they were not used for high speed service. Searching for a photo of the train popped up some other "futuristic" funny looking trains. Below is just a scattering of what's out there. Most of the selection is actually American. From the 1930s to the 1960s it appears we were very "can-do" with train design and experimentation. The wildest trains are two examples of jet or turbojet trains. Of course one of them is from the Soviet Union.

Canada's Turbo Train - deigned by French ANF company's gas turbine T 2000 RTG "Turbotrain" - a Canadian National Railway Vehicle

Courtesy: Postal History Corner

 The Turbo Train in Amtrak service

Courtesy: Viewline Ltd

 Amtrak Turboliner - closely based on the French ANF Turbotrains

Courtesy: NationalCorridors.org; photo: Mike Woodruff

Aerotrain by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (didn't know GM made trains), circa 1950s

Source: Wikipedia.org

The Comet - 1930s

Courtesy: RailPictures.net, Photo: Polinski

Rebuilt Amtrak Turboliner (circa 2000, originally 1970s French designed trains, retired after increasing mechanical problems made them unreliable.)

Courtesy: NYTimes.com

First French TGV

Image: RailPictures.Net Photo by Jean-Marc Frybourg

Nankai 5000

Courtesy: Japan Visitor

Original Japanese Shinkansen "Bullet Train" from the 1960's

Image: Flickr.com kamoda

The JET POWERED! M-497 Black Beetle - You got to hand it to the can-do 1960's. We may chuckle at this, but it takes a can-do spirit and "stick-to-it-iveness". The Black Beetle was an experimental train for the New York Central Railroad with 2 second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines (designed as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber) were mounted atop an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car.

Courtesy: TheContaminated.com

Electroliner - 1940s

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

APT-E - British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train Experimental (1970s)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

First Streamliner Train by Union Pacific: the M-10,000 (1934)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

Back side of the M-10,000 Streamliner Train.

Finally, the last train in this series:
Turbojet Train - not to be confused with the jet powered Black Beetle. According to bogoboo.com, the ER22 is the Soviet attempt at high speed rail in the 1970s.

Courtesy: bogoboo.com

Lots of great train and locomotive shots can be found at Train of the Week.