The Aéro-Car from Mr. Francis Laur

Le rapide aérien, Maison Ch. Rollet, France, 1933

Just like the cars from Leyat 10 years earlier (see here), propeller-driven vehicles were still all the rage in France in the 1930'ies. This toy is a rendering of a proposition of Francis Laur to install a cable-car between "Porte de la Chapelle" and "Saint-Denis" in Paris. Why a cable car ? Because it had to cross 3 railway bridges at 7m height on a straight of 3300m. So it was designed to hover at 20m above street level.

Read all about it here.

The toy came with a cable and instruction leaflet.

The cabin is very light, all made out of aluminium. 

And the sticker says it would go all the way from Paris 

to NYC ! Big, big cable...

A rubber band for propulsion...The real thing would have had
a 40 hp engine, and a propeller that could be inverted
at each end of the line, to avoid expensive roundabouts... 

Newspaper rendering of the time...

In need of rolling stock ? The real system might have been "invented" a couple of years before, when Zeppelins were shot down above Paris.

World War One. Nacelle of the Zeppelin L49 captured in Bourbonne-les-Bains
(France) and displayed in the courtyard of the Invalides.
Paris (VIIth arrondissement). 1917. © Maurice-Louis Branger / Roger-Viollet
(Courtesy http://www.parisenimages.fr/)

The box has the stamp of Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville Paris... today better known as BHV

Scotland tried a similar system, with the George Bennie Railplane. Read more on it here. There was even a small test stretch build at Milngavie, near Glasgow.

The George Bennie Railplane

Geschwindichkeit

It's a torpedo on rails ? A flying Cigar ?

Railzeppelin (Deutsche Reichsbahn) 3477, Märklin,
Germany, 1995 

Streamlined like a Shinkansen (=Japanese bullet train)...
...but in 1931 !

When Germany entered the 2nd WW, they left a number of extremely futuristic inventions unfinished. All production had to go to destroying lives instead of giving a better future.

This rotor-propelled locomotive was one of these incredible projects. Here is what I found on the web... 

"Airplane Technology on Rails. In the Twenties of the previous century, aeronautical engineer Franz Kruckenberg, born in Uetersen, Germany in 1882, had the vision of fast railroad passenger service with propeller-driven railroad cars. The plans developed by him were based on lightweight airplane technology and reached their peak on June 21, 1931 in a triumphant record run by his streamlined Rail Zeppelin. It reached 233 km/h / 146 mph, a speed record for powered railroad cars that stood for 23 years. The principle of propeller-driven railroad cars proved to be less than ideally suited during test runs. Yet, Kruckenberg laid the foundation for modern, lightweight high speed rail cars with the Rail Zeppelin and axle-powered successor designs developed by him. The Rail Zeppelin was and still remains a legend and synonym for the rapid progress in railroad technology that has reached its peak in the present with the current high speed powered rail car train technology "

Detail of rotor

Nowedays the only way to see one of these is in miniature on a railroad. This Märklin model (Sonder Serie / special edition) is pretty neat, and it has a silver-plated propellor that was quite nicer looking than the usual 4-bladed orange rotor on earlier models.

At low power, only the rotor begins to spin. Increase a little speed and the whole locomotive moves. Sweet !

The real one. Metal structure.

Copycats... Kuckenberg on wheels !

This loc was a superstar at its time...

Like the TGV or ICE, but built without computers.

No need for water ! (we're still in the steam age !)