The Turbotrain was any of several French high-speed,

gas turbine train A gas turbine locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), 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 ...

s. The earliest Turbotrain entered service in 1967, for use on

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

intercity lines. There were four versions in total, with the last exiting service in 2005, and it is the Turbotrain that made advances possible for the

TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...

TGS (''Turbine à gaz spéciale'') Prototype – XR 8575 trainset

In 1967, the SNCF converted a 2-car X 4300 Class diesel multiple unit train originally built by ANF Industrie (Ateliers Construction du Nord de la France) starting in 1963 (either train number X4375 or X4365), into the prototype experimental Turbotrain TGS (''Turbine à gaz spéciale'').Garvin, Brian; Fox, Peter; and Appleby, Chris. SNCF/French National Railways: Locomotives and Multiple Units. Sheffield, United Kingdom: Platform 5 Publishing; 1986. pp65, 96 The new gas-turbine engine was installed into the trailer car of this 2-car set; the original diesel power-car was fitted with a new cab but retained its original diesel motor and transmission. Trials started on 25 April 1967. The TGS reached on 15 October 1971.

Class T 1000 ETG (Élément à Turbine à Gaz) trains

This is the first-generation of production Turbotrains. These ETG (Elément à Turbine à Gaz) trains were four carriage trainsets which offered 188 seats and possessed one diesel engine and one gas turbine engine. The gas-turbine engine was an 820 kW Turbomeca Turmo IIIF3 gas-turbine

Voith The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith trades in the markets of energy, paper, raw materials and transport. Founded in 1867, Voith today has aroun ...

hydraulic (derived from a helicopter turbine) and the diesel was a 320 kW Saurer SDHR diesel-mechanical.Garvin, Brian; Fox, Peter; and Appleby, Chris. SNCF/French National Railways: Locomotives and Multiple Units. Sheffield, United Kingdom: Platform 5 Publishing; 1986. p96. These trains reached . The ETGs entered service in 1971 on the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

Cherbourg Cherbourg is a former Communes of France, commune and Subprefectures in France, subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French departments of France, department of Manche. It was merged into the com ...

. A total of 14 of these four-car trainsets were manufactured from 1969–1972 by ANF. These trains were maintained at the Venissieux trainshed in Lyon for "many years", but were moved to the Lyon Vaise depot in the 1980s. Electrification of the Grenoble line caused some trainsets to be shifted to work in Clermont Ferrand and

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

Class T 2000 RTG (Rame à Turbine à Gaz) trains

These trains had five carriages with 280 seats and were built between 1972 and 1976 by ANF and MTE (Societe de Materiel de Traction Electrique). Forty-one RTG trainsets were manufactured for SNCF service. These trains were equipped with one Turmo IIIF1 gas turbine in the even-numbered cabs and one Turmo XII gas turbine in the odd-numbered cabs, reaching . Normally, the even-numbered engine was shut down once the train reached cruising speeds. The RTG entered service in 1973 on the

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

lines, it subsequently entered service on the

and

Deauville Deauville () is a communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados department, Normandy (administrative region), Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its port, harbour, Race track, race course, marinas, con ...

- Dives-Cabourg lines in 1975. The electrification of the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg line in 1996 moved the RTGs onto the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

line until 2005. In later years, the SNCF RTG trainsets were modified to allow two RTG trains to be operated together by one driver as a

multiple-unit A multiple-unit train (or multiple unit (MU)) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined, and where one or more of the carriages have the means of propulsion built in. By contrast, a locomotive-hauled train has all ...

train.

Export models

Six examples of the RTG were built by ANF for

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and were dubbed Turboliners in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. These RTG Turboliners were first imported into the United States in 1973 and "impressed with their reliability"Allen, Geoffrey Freeman. The World's Fastest Trains: From the Age of Steam to the TGV. Somerset, United Kingdom: Patrick Stephens Limited; 1992. p143 and proliferated with further orders from France and license-production in the United States by Rohr. The

Egyptian National Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ). History 1833–1877 In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha considered building a railway between Suez and Cairo to impr ...

purchased three enlarged 10-car turbotrains manufactured by ANF for a planned service on the 208 km route between

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. However, the trackage is not suitable for such speeds, and the trains have been restricted to maximum and in the vicinity of Cairo.Abbott, James, editor. Jane's World Railways 1996–1997. Surrey, United Kingdom: Jane's Information Group; 1996. pp448-9 Four units of Turbotrains were introduced in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in 1974 with max speed of between

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

that later in 2008 were converted to DMUs by substitution of

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s instead of turbines.

TGV 001 experimental high-speed train

This experimental Turbotrain TGV 001 set the world speed record for gas turbine-powered rail vehicles with on 8 December 1972. This TGV 001 was a five-car trainset which possessed four gas-turbine engines with a total output of and all axles motored. This train was extensively tested over more than running at over , of which almost half were covered at more than and a peak of . The research program from this prototype, and from the Z7001 Zebulon electric test train, provided data used for the design of the later electric

trains. The TGV 001 prototype was retired in January 1978; one power-car (TDu 001) from this trainset is preserved and is located at on the A4 highway exit number 50 Bischheim near

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, France. The other power-car (TDu 002) is preserved and located at on the A36 highway exit number 13 (Belfort-Glacis du Château) near Belfort in the Territoire de Belfort, France.

Preservation

One RTG is kept in running condition at the French National Railway Museum in

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2019 SNCF multiple units High-speed trains of France Gas turbine multiple units of France