Popular Science and Popular Mechanics type magazines were around for many years, and not just in America.
These three visions of what trains of the future could look like all appeared during World War 2.
The first is from Germany in 1940. "The streamline express under the earth. Also in the area of underground railway construction fantastic plans have emerged which will assume a considerable increase in speed. Thus one wants, for example, to realise travel torpedos which will run on only one lower rail and pick up current by means of a sliding contact from an upper glide-rail in which the copper cable is embedded."
This idea was clearly impractical and unrealistic, however, the next two were closer to the mark of what would develop.
The American scene from 1944 shows a diesel multiple unit which didn't appear like this, but the concept was developed to actual trains in Europe and Japan.
The third from France from 1942 shows a rather more substantial autorail or railcar than those that existed at the time, with scenery reminiscent of the Grenoble to Veynes line. The front is similar in a respect to the TGV as developed in the 1970s.
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