Can anyone tell me, which railroads had the GG1 in service? I have seen models by IHC with many paintschemes like New Haven “McGinnis”, Milwaukee, New York Central, Great Northern and so on? Had these railroads the gg1 in service? i know only from Pennsylvania, NJT, Amtrak.
Thanks, Micha, Dresden, Germany
Conrail and Penn Central used them , also as freight engines. When PC and Amtak had them they ran on the New Haven lines but never painted as NH.
Micha, the GG1 was designed by Raymond Lowey (at least the esthetic parts) and developed by GE and Westinhouse for the Pennsylvania RR in the 1930’s and ran under PRR, PC, AMTRAK and Conrail ownership until the last one was retired (I believe) in the early 1980’s.
The running gear on the GG1 somewhat resembled that of an older New Haven (nonstreamlined) elelctric which I think is why you sometimes saw model GG1s painted New Haven. I think even Penn Line had their all metal shorty GG1 painted New Haven.
Dave Nelson
spikesys.com has much info on gg1…
Micha,
The makers of models will paint them in any railroad colors they think will sell. You can find just about every model of every diesel painted in the Santa Fe’s warbonnet paintscheme.
As far as I know, Pennsylvania RR was the only road with them, it developed it with General Electric. You may find a few photos of it in PC paint,& Conrail blue, and of course pennesy tuscan red and that odd green they had… I dont think Amtrak ever repainted the ones they inherited.
Ed
I think at least a few had Amtrak lettering, Ed. Painted black rather than the red blue and platinum mist
In fact I think the one donated to the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union Illinois has, or at least had, its black Amtrak paint on delivery.
There might also have been a special paint job for the bicentennial and perhaps also the 1969 commemoration of the Golden Spike.
Dave Nelson
You know, now that you mention it, I think I saw a shot of a black one, with white amtrak letters, in Classic trains…not a classy look for a classy looking motor. Sitting still, them look like their moving…
Ed
The “classiest” paint scheme I ever saw the GG1 in was the Tuscan Red with Gold striping of the PRR back in the 1950’s era. VERY classy indeed!
Amtrak did paint several of its GG1s into a red, blue and platinum mist scheme. Others simply wore their former Penn Central black with Amtrak lettering.
The classiest Amtrak GG1 was probably the 4935, repainted into its classic Brunswick green in the mid-1970s. This unit is now on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, along with the first GG1, #4800.
Pennsy originally painted 10 GG1s into the Tuscan red scheme in 1952 for service on its new “Senator” and “Congressional” Budd streamliners.
I have to say that the Brunswick Green scheme on the GG1 units was also great, and would be my second choice behind Tuscan Red!
the largest and most intimidating engines ever are the up big boy and the gg1… i feel lke a kid looking up to the frankenstein monster, i want to run away, but i cant take my eyes off this enormous piece of iron which is controlled by just 2 operators!! i heard the big boy could develop 1M lbs. of thrust… si o no?
Ed, i just saw a picture with a GG1 painted in Amtrak Bloody nose paint scheme. But i was sure, that there were not so much different paintschemes. On the website of Mehano modelrailroads, you can see the gg1 with more than 20 different paintschemes in ho scale. And i must say, also if they never existed, the mcginnis and the milwaukee paintschemes looks very nice on a gg1. i´m worried about, that new jersey transit runs there gg1´s only in black, and not in the todays silver paintscheme with the colerful stripes. I´m a big njt fan. i hope some company will build the new alp-46 in ho scale. If not, i must scratchbuild it from the german class 101, they are just the same locos.
Micha
Somewhere and I cannot recall where I saw a photo of a GG1 that the Pennsy cut in half and used as some sort of snow plow in a yard! I swear I saw this! I only had one little beer tonight!
Dave Nelson
Look here, I think you may like this,
http:/www.hobokenterminal.com/
It the unoffical NJT fans website, it should have GG1 in NJT colors…
Have fun, ED
The Pennsy also painted five Gs in a silver scheme with a wide red stripe with the large Keystone logo.
Rust from the pantographs stained the silver paint, so the locos didn’t keep that scheme for long.
Eric from Doylestown
Dave–you did not have one beer too many! One PRR GG1 was cut in half & used as a “shop switcher” at Wilmington DE. (Not really a snowplow.) This loco was pictured in the railfan press many years ago. It may also have been pictured in one of Al Staufer’s PRR motive power books or REMARKABLE GG1 by Karl Zimmerman.
From what I gather, the GG-1’s were retired because it was uneconimical to convert them to 60 cycle current. Now here’s a question for the “juice fans”, Why can’t they take the electrical guts out of an Amtrak E-60, (which are being retired), and re-fit a GG-1 body to operate on todays catenary? Just food for thought, remember the grass-roots group that got 4935 restored to PRR livery? Sure, it would cost some serious bucks, but it IS possible.
Todd C.
Eric, as a former resident of Chalfont, I was wondering what might be new on the SEPTA (former Reading) line from Doylestown, through Chalfont and to Phila.? Jim from Aurora, IL
E60s have nose-suspended DC traction motors like a diesel electric. GG1s have AC motors with quill drive. They are so different in size, shape and construction, that it would be much easier just to put a new transformer and tap switches into a GG1 than try to convert it to DC traction motors. You could probably do a complete rebuild/convert a GG1 to run on 60 Hz for >$1M - not too shaby when a new electric loco goes for several million.
BTW the real problem with the 25/60 Hz issue is that from Penn Sta north to New Haven it is 12,000 VAC 60 Hz, from New Haven to Boston it is 25,000 VAC 60 Hz and the old PRR is still 11,000VAC 25Hz. Amtrak found it cheaper to convert commercial 60Hz power to 25Hz using solid state converter than to redo everything to 60 Hz. The trick is getting a locomotive to run on all 3, which, for a GG1 would be a huge cost.