Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4935
(first posted 5/31/13) The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotive can lay claim to a number of “firsts”, one of which was that it was the longest lasting locomotive in US history, in use from 1935 until 1983. It saw service in the PRR system and later the Penn Central, Amtrak, Conrail, and New Jersey Transit lines.
A total of 139 GG1s were built, 15 by GE’s Erie shop, and the remaining 124 by the PRR Altoona Works. Some, if not all, have frames built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA.
Although Raymond Loewy is popularly given credit for the GG1’s styling, some sources claim that the form of the locomotive was established in-house at Altoona, and later refined by Loewy. Loewy’s main contributions were welded rather than riveted bodies, and the paint scheme (rail nuts prefer the term “livery”)
The elegant Loewy Nose
Amtrak still had GG1s in daily service when I worked there. They ran from Washington DC to New York City and from Philadelphia to Harrisburgh. Gearing limited the top speed to 100 mph (161 kph).
There are 15 GG1s in US museums but none are thought to be operational, even the 4935 shown here, which now resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. The PCBs once used to cool the transformers have been removed.
Keystone and Stripes
Although the paint on the 4935 appears to be black, it is actually a dark green that the PRR called “Brunswick Green”. Beginning in the early 1950s, some units were painted “Tuscan Red” to match many of the coaches that the PRR operated. See the first photo for this coloration, there is a coach in the background painted this color.
Dedication Day for the restored 4935
When the 4935 completed its restoration it was brought to Washington Union Station to be exhibited in 1977. Not sure what month but it was summery and warm.
GG1s have been designated a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Sexy red pinstripe
The red pinstripe is an elegant, if not dainty detail for a locomotive that weighed 475,000 lbs (215,000 kg), was 79.5’ long (24.2 m), and 15’ high (4.6 m).
GG1s had 12 traction motors each producing 385 hp (287 kw), for a total of 4620 hp, with a ton more on the short term.
So why get rid of a asset that cost Amtrak only $50,000 to acquire, had Head End Power (HEP), and could pull consists at 100 mph with ease? The answer was age. The Baldwin frames exhibited copious amounts of cracks, and virtually all maintenance parts had to be custom manufactured. Same reason you don’t see DC-3s in use anymore, at least in passenger airlines operated in the US.
For those of you into arcana, the Whyte notation for this loco was 4-6-0+0-6-4.
Loewy and his team took a real mess of a design (see the first riveted unit and its paint scheme) and made it beautiful.
Amtrak also had to get rid of its GG1’s due to the age of the transformers and the vast amount of PCB’s each loco carried.
I had to research PCBs to refresh my memory. It turns out that 99% of PCBs in the US were manufactured by Monsanto, the same people that are so big in the biopiracy and genetically modified food business today.
…so I guess, then, without PCBs, the GG-1 would never have been.
And you could say, too, that the PRR was the one who ORDERED PCBs to be made in such quantities.
Pretty dumb post. Pretty much every large transformer had PCBs back in the day, it just happened to be the best coolant fluid available at the time. Remember, asbestos was widely used way back too, was that a Monsanto conspiracy too???
While Polychlorinated Biphenyls are toxic, and some would seem to
blame them for everything from polydactylism in carpenter ants to
male pattern baldness, in the USA they are not illegal for use in
sealed and closed systems, which would include the transformers used
in electric drive systems like that of the GG-1. The requirements
are for environmentally safe disposal (at which the Pennsylvania
Railroad failed, dumping the PCBs into the soil). In any case,
the transformers in which they are used could have been modified or
converted to use alternate coolant and insulating fluids, and they
would have required rework anyway to be operated on 25,000 volts
instead of their originally designed 11,000 volts. But the traction
motors of the GG-1 were designed to use only 25Hz current.
Transformer taps varied the voltage of the 25Hz current applied to
the motor; this was the means used to control power and speed.
Operation on 60Hz current would not have been possible with the
GG-1’s traction motors, and the engines’ quill drive and suspension
were specifically designed for these motors. Conversion of the GG-1
to use 60Hz current was impossible without completely replacing the
motors, wheels, quills, axles, suspension system and frame; and solid
state rectification with AC regeneration did not exist when the GG-1
was retired.
So a change from 25Hz to 60Hz, as Amtrak planned, would have rendered the GG-1 inoperable, dooming them even had the aforementioned structural cracks not been a factor. But ultimately Amtrak never made the change on its lines which had been electrified by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and with the advent of solid-state converters, it never will. The last time it was considered was when Amtrak was about to enter into a deal with Enron, which would use Amtrak’s catenary and distribution systems as transmission lines; Enron would use them to transmit 60Hz current instead of building more power lines, and sell power to Amtrak. But we all know what happened to Enron.
Asbestos would be a Johns Manville conspiracy
You mean Johns Manville has been around and mining asbestos for 4,500 years now? Damn! Learn something new everyday.
The interstate movement of PCB’s was banned by the EPA. That was when they all were retired. Welding science wasn’t what it is today and they got hard to get parts for. I do remember riding behind one on a train from Phila to Boston (had to change to diesel somewhere in Conn.) It took us to speed pretty quickly.
The Illinois Railway Museum has one of these on display in a barn. It’s not quite as nice but it is a beautiful locomotive. It has presence. The museum has overhead wires for electric locomotives but I doubt the GG1 will be running under them any time soon.
My father grew up around Philly, and undoubtedly spent time in trains pulled by these. Beautiful engines. There is something noble about an old piece of machinery that still does its job years and years beyond its intended service life.
The GG1’s operational life was drastically extended when the first generation Metroliners, which were MUs (multiple unit; no locomotive) trains, turned out to be major duds. We moved to Baltimore in 1965, and the new Metroliner was a big deal, especially since my Dad was a train junkie. The GE E60C, quickly ordered by Amtrak to deal with the problem also turned out to be a dud. So it wasn’t long before the GG1s were pulling the “Metroliners” again. An embarrassing moment for Amtrak, but the GG1 saved their bacon until the little Swedish AEM-7 locos arrived to finally relieve them.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/slideshow/trackside-classics-prr-gg-1-and-db-e18e19e118obb-1018-the-two-greatest-electric-locomotives-ever/
Those AEM-7s look like garbage compared to a GG1. They run well but the GG1 just looks much better.
…And now, in 2020 (actually a few years earlier) the AEM-7s are completely gone from Amtrak. Some have gone West to the San Francisco area, to CalTrain, for nonrevenue use while the electrified railroad is being built.
Dang, you guys are bound and determined to force me to unleash some of my railroad photos at some point. Magnificent beasts, got to see a bit of them in operation at the very end of the Penn Central era. Not even painting them solid black with a huge ‘mating worms’ logo on the side uglified ’em much.
The reason DC-3s are not used for passenger service has more to do with operating costs than the fact it’s old and parts aren’t available. Any commercially operated aircraft must pass regular inspections (per FAA regulations), and replacement parts for primary airframe components aren’t likely to be found off-the-shelf, regardless the vintage.
While technically not in the USA, there is still at least one airline offering DC-3 passenger service in North America: http://flightaware.com/live/findflight?origin=CYZF&destination=CYHY&Search=
There are several hundred of these beautiful aircraft still being used commercially today, and not a few have been repowered with turboprop engines.
“If it looks right, it will fly right.”
There are still Dakotas flying in the North of Canuckisan. The elevation is relatively high and so can summer temperatures. Combined with short strips, this leaves a place for the venerable Dak.
There is an airline in Alaska that is still operating DC 3s, for both freight and passenger service. I don’t remember how long it took to change out the interiors. They did have over size doors. They also fly C 54s, there was a show about the operation of the airline on the National Geographic channel. They were painted white with green stripes, I just can’t remember the name of the airline. I must be getting old.
Might be a show called Ice Pilots, they fly C46 Commandos some C54’s but mostly Lockheed Electras
Growing up around the steel mills meant I used to sit in the back seat behind my parents and watch trains sit on the tracks, blocking the rail crossings while the signals clanged and flashed and the gates were down. I probably spent five years of my life waiting for trains to move so that we could get to the bank, or get to church, or get to the grocery store, or get to the drug store, or get to the doctor’s office, or get to the nearest toilet to pee after waiting for a train that sat on the tracks blocking the rail crossings.
You knew it was bad when the line of cars in front of us had turned off their engines, opened their doors and popped their hoods to cool their engines. Drivers standing around, smoking and cursing the damn trains that didn’t seem to move. Waiting around in a line of cars waiting for a train to move sometimes builds comradery in a similar way any other disaster affecting dozens of strangers builds comradery.
Then the train would budge. The cars would shift and you would hear the couplings bang as each wagon would jerk and collide into it’s neighbor. Drivers would all instantly stop cursing and look at the train hopefully. Then you’d sometimes see one of the railway engineers or track men walking along the side of the train like a uniformed hobo conveying a message to the front that the switch in the rail yard had indeed been switched and that the train could slowly push to cars full of scrap steel, or coal, or whatever into the rail yard.
The diesel engines would rumble louder than your brother’s taunts in the sweaty backseat, the train would inch in reverse, the drivers would hop happily into their cars, slamming doors and tossing cigarette butts out open windows, and the parade of idling cars would clamber over the rickety rail crossing headed to the next errand.
I hate trains!
That was a good read. Thanks!
Couple of correction from this railroad enthusiast who grew up in “Pennsy” country:
Rail fans may call the color “Brunswick Green,” but the Pennsylvania Railroad called it “Dark Green Locomotive Enamel.” Admittedly, this is not as evocative as Brunswick Green. Tuscan Red also had a similarly prosaic name that escapes me at the moment.
A GG1 will never run again. As has been mentioned, they contained PCBs. When the GG1s were retired, my understanding is that the transformers were filled with sand to soak up any remaining PCBs so they would not escape.
Even if the transformers could be cleaned out, the PCBs could not legally be replaced. Theoretically, the offending electrical equipment could be replaced with modern parts – but would that really be a GG1?
The short term power rating is usually quoted as 8500 hp. All electric locomotives have short term power ratings much higher than their continuous rating. Electric motors can be overloaded for short periods. Diesel electrics are limited by the output of the Diesel engine – though at low speeds the electric motors can be overloaded – but electrics can draw additional power from the overhead catenary.
Classic Trains did an issue a few back about the original designer of the GG1, whose name escapes me at the moment. I feel like it was Doner or something like that. Loewy’s firm was responsible for the livery change and some refinement of the design. I can’t recall whether the welding had been suggested before Loewy’s involvement or not.
“Even if the transformers could be cleaned out, the PCBs could not legally be replaced. Theoretically, the offending electrical equipment could be replaced with modern parts – but would that really be a GG1?”
Resto-mod on a G-Giga scale!
Yep, don’t remember his name either, but he was a designer working for Westinghouse, and the basic shape was applied to both the GG-1 and R-1 prototypes – as well as some of the existing P5 box-cab locomotives. The GG-1 prototype won the competition, and its riveted body was changed to welded. But it’s unclear whether Lowey influenced that decision or not.
Incidentally, Lowey’s first commission from the PRR was to design new trash bins for Penn Station!
That Classic Trains article was filled with a lot of special pleading for Doner. The basic steeplecab design was nothing new. Loewy made the GG-1 beautiful and that what matters.
Fun factoids, the GG1 was one of the few locomotives to ever fall victim to the classic Reginald Perrin excuse “wrong kind of snow on the line”. One day in the mid 50s the weather conspired to produce a very fine crystalline snow that passed through the air filters and shorted out the switchgear. Also one GG1 blew through the buffers in Washington D.C. Union Station, continued into the concourse and promptly fell through the floor into the basement.
From what I recall (and I should go Google it) the Union Station accident was right before Eisenhower’s Inauguration in either ’53 or ’57, and there wasn’t time to extricate the locomotive from the basement of the station, so a temporary floor was laid over it to cover the gaping hole and allow the station to be used until the Inauguration rush was over.
A further interesting fact about the locomotive (Pennsylvania GG-1 #4876) that fell through the Union Station floor? Once the 1953 inauguration was over, they had to cut the locomotive into three pieces to extract it from the basement of Union Station. The three pieces were sent to the Altoona, PA shops, and reassembled, repaired and repainted–and #4876 went back into service. Remarkably, it served for another 30 years, ending its career with New Jersey transit in 1983.
More remarkably? It still exists today. It’s owned by the B&O rail museum in Baltimore, though it’s not on public display and evidently is in such decrepit shape it will probably never be restored.
Nonetheless–if that’s not tough, I don’t know what is. I’ve only ever seen one of these, at the Virginia Museum of Transportation about 20 years ago, but I was struck at the scale and the power of such a massive machine. A shame none will ever run again, but at least we’re lucky enough to have numerous units still available for viewing, unlike the S1, T1, and so many other iconic locomotives that now survive only as photos and memories.
http://dcist.com/2013/01/post_55.php#photo-1
A couple of larger points about the Pennsylvania Railroad that might be of interest to the historically minded folks:
– The Pennsylvania Railroad was, for many, many years, the world’s largest corporation. It was the advent of the auto industry that led to its being eclipsed in size by General Motors.
– The Pennsylvania still holds the record for consecutive dividend payments to shareholders – over 100 years. Its first net loss didn’t occur until 100 years after its founding.
– At its peak, the PRR had an annual budget larger than that of the US government at the time. Yes, you read that right.
Raymond Lowey’s only contribution to the GG1 was having the plates butt welded together into one unit and lowered onto the locomotive’s chassis. The horizontal gold bands-“cat whiskers”-were suggested by Lowey to reflect light make them more visible to track maintenance crews; they were so quiet in the early days of their operation. there were a number of accidents.
I have virtually no knowledge of rail locomotives, but even the most cursory glance can tell that one’s beautifully styled, a true art-deco masterpiece.
Contrast it with the latest design. I suppose it’s exponentially better in terms of efficiency but, in appearance, it looks like an RV on rails.
Different times demand different design solutions. When the PRR hired Loewy to style the GG1, the large railroads were still in the business of hauling people, and therefore, image was important. After the freight railroads got out of the passenger hauling biz, it really didn’t matter if you projected a streamlined image, only that you moved your customer’s goods in a timely manner. The GE Evolution loco that you show is what we call a “hammer”, i.e., just a tool. Since maximum speed limit for freight throughout the US is 79 mph, aerodynamics doesn’t play much of a factor in a freight locomotive’s design.
79 mph! Where?
I’ve worked on Conrail, CSX, CN, CP, DM&E and a couple short-lines, as well as for a contractor for AT&SF (at the time of the merger)…and 70 mph was the fastest I’d seen for timetable speed for freight (Amtrak did run 79 mph in most places). On Conrail’s Water Level Route, speed for freight was 50 (excepting stack-trains or auto racks, which ran at 60). On the former Wisconsin Central (ex SOO) it was 60. DM&E, former CNW, it was not more than 40 in the 1970s.
Today’s freight railroads are mostly not interested in raw speed. Most time-sensitive items go by truck (excepting UPS trailer-trains) and the large mega-carriers focus on bulk commodities.
On CSX, we used to say it was all grain, coal and garbage. No pressure for delivery; no risk of theft. Average speed on the former Conrail district I worked on: 17 mph, terminal to terminal.
OK, I’m not a freight guy, but I recall that top speeds for Amtrak trains outside of the North East Corridor was 79 mph. I simply assumed that if Amtrak could run this speed (signal dependent) that freight could run the same speed. The UP freights that I have paced in Wyoming and Nebraska in my car certainly were running over 70 mph.
I can’t comment definitively – I’ve never worked for the UP.
I have, however, run a lot of their power on CSX and CN. AND…my run used to take me by the GE Transportation Systems plant in Erie. Local freights, which I often was assigned, would pull out new units ready to ship – and have us take them dead-in-tow.
Most of those units had – stenciled on the forward bulkhead – MAX SPEED 70 MPH.
There may have been variations; but I never saw them on new units. Older units may have had higher gearing; and of course the Genesis Amtrak units were geared much higher…but that’s what I saw and know of the freight units.
FWIW, CSX – briefly – experimented with a 70-mph zone between Berea, Ohio, and Crestline, Ohio. I ran it, once, at that speed – with a BNSF GE Dash-9. It had a speed limiter and telltale trip at 73 mph – which was easy to hit as you started on an easy downgrade. Engine would cut power, and you’d have an alarm on the digital panel on the back wall – only to be reset by maintenance.
I paced a Norfolk and Western train at 120 mph. Of course it was steam powered and it was pulling 22 loaded heavyweight passinger coaches. Oh and it was built in the 1950’s.
J-class perchance? Those were legendary for their speed capability.
Incidentally J-611, the last remaining J, is currently undergoing a full mechanical restoration at Spencer Shops in North Carolina and if the restoration keeps to schedule is supposed to be in operating condition next year. To see the old girl move under her own steam again…that’s going to be pretty special!
(And I wasn’t even alive in the era of steam, but I remember seeing 611 pass my house pulling excursion trains in the early 90’s… those ended in 1994 and she hasn’t run since.)
You are correct. those hollow aluminum side rods, roller bearings, and the other high tech stuff really made it move.
Yeah, I suppose Amtrak locomotives aren’t quite as ‘utilitarian’ in appearance as those used exclusively for freight.
FWIW: Tales of Fraud and Malfeasance in Railroad Hiring Practices (from an old SNL skit).
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v1879401177E2TNX5?h1=Tales+of+Fraud+and+Malfeasance+in+Railroad+Hiring+Practices
@justpassinthru – On my cross country drive, with the cruise control set at 90 mph, it took me a LONG time to pass a BNSF double-stack container train. Can’t vouch for the train’s speed exactly though. For what it’s worth, Class 5 track is good for 80 mph for freight, though whether the railroads run that fast, I don’t know.
Speaking of, that’s the other time-sensitive freight the US railroads haul. A lot of ship lines use North American railroads to ship from East Asia to Europe. With containers, a huge container ship can be unloaded in a day; the train will cross the country in four days or so. Then they’ll load the containers back on another ship to head to Europe. Much faster than the trip around Cape Horn, as the biggest container ships are too late for the Panama Canal.
Domestically, those double stacks are filled with JB Hunt containers – for long distances, JB Hunt finds it more efficient than its own trucks and drivers. The price of fuel helps too.
True enough, with the stack trains…TOFC, or as Conrail called them, TV (Trail-Van) trains.
When CSX came in, with all their smug ideas, they lost a lot of that business. Amazingly, they were happy to see it go…said the per-car profit wasn’t enough. That was typical of how they ran their business in the early ’00s.
But…yeah. A lot of it was run-through…Long Beach or Seattle to Jersey or other East Coast docks.
Doggone it, Kevin, you’ve done it!
I had the honor of riding behind this very locomotive on the National Limited in September, 1979 from St. Louis to NYC. The 4935 picked us up at Harrisburg, I believe, Penn Station at Philly, for sure. I have a dim photo of it somewhere, for I took the picture at Penn Station in Manhattan.
Our conductor realized I was a rail enthusiast, and gave me the train order for 4935. Sadly, it got lost over time with a lot of other mementos.
It was a business trip, and as our son was born only a few weeks before, wifey couldn’t go…
Times Square sure was a dump in those days, as was a good part of Manhattan. To this day, I have never seen a larger boom box on someone’s shoulder than on that trip!
Coming home, I took the long way – I rode the Broadway Limited to Chicago and even got a Slumbercoach from Pittsburgh to Chicago. That was a real treat. Took the Ann Rutledge back to STL.
Goodness, I love passenger trains – the most civilized way to travel ever invented.
Longest lasting? Um, no. 1935 to 1983 comes to “only” 48 years, and there are quite a few EMD GP7s still on the job. And the last one was built in 1953. There are also many classic Alco S Series switchers in service on shortlines and industrials still on the job, and some were even built prior to WWII.
I can vouch for that. There is a 1953 GP7 ex-SOO Line unit floating around my road. We try to use it only as the middle of a three unit consist, because its awful to run out of.
Or the CN Boxcabs. 76 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Boxcab_Electric
Very few sights in railroading were as impressive or magnificent as a GG1 hauling passenger cars over the Hell Gate bridge in New York. Even in Penn Central livery, they were awesome.
The GG1 was unique in that it was a heavy-haul electric locomotive which could operate at high speed in passenger service.
The Pennsylvania Railroad had “replacements” in their General Electric E44 electrics but they were heavy-haul freight locomotives, unsuited to passenger service.
Amtrak’s General Electric E60 (1974-1976) wasn’t all that much different under their boxier bodies from the E44. Amtrak had planned to operate them at 120mph but the first one, the Amtrak 950, derailed on a high speed test and the fleet was limited to 90mph, then to 80mph, then back to 90mph.
Amtrak’s ASEA/EMD (Swedish design, USA construction, 1977-1980) AEM-7 was a light, fast locomotive but could not handle tonnage. At its maximum authorized speed it was limited to seven cars. Heavy trains such as those to Florida (up to 18 cars) and the Clocker commuter trains (12-15 cars) were assigned the E60s which were limited to 90mph but could handle that amount of tonnage, whereas the AEM-7 could not unless two of them were used.
Amtrak’s Bombardier HHP-8, ordered simultaneously with, and an adaptation of the Acela high speed trains (built in 2000), was designed as a heavy-haul, high speed passenger locomotive. It took about a year to work out the bugs, from basic propulsion difficulties to electrical interference with cab signals on other trains; and even after that, its reliability record was dismal. Imagine a piece of expensive equipment that, due to one problem or another, was not available half the time. That is how bad the HHP-8 was. Originally named HHL-8 for High Horsepower Locomotive, the jokes about the “L” really meaning “LOUSY” got so annoying to Amtrak brass that they changed the name to HHP for High Horse Power. Currently, “WAS” is the proper word for their status because Amtrak has taken all of them out of service. One remains in Ivy City Yard in Washington DC, waiting a ride, dead-in-train, to storage at the Wilmington (DE) Motor Shop where all the rest of the fifteen HHP-8s await their fate.
Finally, in its new Siemens ACS-64, Amtrak finally has a heavy-haul (though not the equal of the GG1), high-speed passenger locomotive, though its own needs have decreased as it no longer operates regularly scheduled trains as long and heavy as the Florida trains, whose ridership has declined substantially; and the Clockers have been discontinued. Thus far the ACS-64 has been a good performer, and reliable.
Crap, wish I knew more about trains.
My grandfather worked on the railroad, it might have been the PRR as he lived and I grew up in north east Pa. I never asked what job he did, I just assumed he was a conductor.
I haven’t been to the Pennsylvania Steam Town (aren’t there several in the United States), and while I have been through Altoona twice….maybe 3 times, I never knew it’s importance in rail history.
Finally, was VERY surprised at the (possible) top speed of the GGI…especially considering it’s period of operation.
There is one of these in Roanoke at the Virginia Transportation Museum. It is in horrible shape and seems to be returning to the earth more each time I see the poor thing.
There were a couple of other PRR livery schemes for the GG-1. In the mid 50s, PRR switched to a single gold band about the same thickness as the original set of stripes, interrupted by a large, shadow-boxed PRR keystone at dead center.
The pinstriped Tuscan Red GG-1s, were created to pull the new, stainless steel Congressional and Senator train sets launched in 1952, When the Pennsy adopted the simplified livery in the mid 50s, they painted a couple of GG-1s silver with red stripes to handle the Congressional and Senator.
Wow ;
I’m a minor Rail Fan , all this details and stories are great ! .
THANK YOU .
-Nate
I must have missed this the first time around. Anyway, when I worked for Norfolk Southern and lived in Hershey, PA in the late 90’s (just after they and CSX acquired Conrail) there was one of these sitting at the Harrisburg station. Is it still there?
Lovely machine, it’s ashame we won’t see one back in service. Being a civil engineer, I worked for MW&S (maintenance of way and structures), so I didn’t spend much time with the train portion of the railroad, but I was always impressed with the physical plant that had been built by the railroads in the NE – the magnificent stations, bridges, catenary, etc. There were even remnants of the system used for the high speed steam engines to obtain water on the move from between the rails underneath the train (so I was told).
Hm you know if thairs,a company out thair that can make new Cbps they should build new electric ggls with upgraded cabs and phanograghs gg1s re arent a big problem when it comes,to using electric power and I dive on my game thair easy to operate if I can do it so can they
It wasn’t the GG-1 that wore out, it was the pub s that were the problem. The eps banned interstate movement of them.
One of the most beautiful engines, ever! Obviously!! Just gorgeous to my eye.
I have recently retired as a sales engineer and fitting my study with pictures of engineering feats (welded seams & all) of the era our (retirement) house was built (1938-1940). This is a grand addition; perfect.
It would be nice if they could find some kind of way to make these operational again.
Vividly remember when these were in service during the 1970’s. Seemed to symbolize the PRR.
I remember these going into and thru the Metuchen, NJ station when we lived out there from 54-57. We also got pulled by one on a long train ride from NYC to Chicago circa Dec, ’56. IIRC the engine was switched out late at night, someplace in PA.
Were any painted a very dark brown? That seems to be the color I associate with them….or has my memory gone haywire??
Twas a L O N G ride sitting up; not much fun. DFO
I was an engineer who ran many trips on the GG1 in both passenger and freight service. In the winter months they were very uncomfortable on a cold day as the traction motor blowers would suck the heat from the cab.
In the summer they were fine while moving but, the heat from the motors would be very nasty while standing. The GG1 was a great loco for passenger service but, because of its high gearing, was more problematic
With freight. What MEMORIES!
My grandfather was PRR engineer that ran GG1s and then metroliners. I was fortunate that he took us into the yards with several GG1s and metroliners. GG1 exteriors were huge while the cabs were spartan and well worn. The view through the front cab window was restrictive due it’s small size and the long nose in front – but it also offers some protection from flying debris.
Railroading was a hard life, with long operating hours and dead (unpaid) hours depending on the train route. He hated shoveling coal when he started, but he wore a suit when he was a metroliner engineer.
I also got the cab view! A PRR engineer befriended me and with my folks’ permission helped me up into the cab. He released the brake and let me open the throttle once. That giant beauty moved four feet! Then he stopped us, moved the loco and train back four feet. I was in another world all day! That was approximately 1963, and my family and I
were headed out to ride one of Reading
Iron Horse Rambles! In 1971 and ’72, my dad and I rode the New Haven’s Merchant’s Limited to GCT, enjoying freshly prepared Boston Scrod or stuffed lemon sole in the dining cars doing 90 mph (we clocked the mileposts) pulled by these great locos. Fun fact–the had spoked drivers with replaceable tires, like steam locos did!