I do not know if there is a Forum page dealing with the GG1 so here gos.
During the winter of 1944-45 when I was 4 years old we made 5 trips from Steubenville Ohio to Atlantic City by train. Gas rationing made travel by car impossible. My uncle was severely injured in WW2 and several of the hotels in Atlantic City were converted to military hospitals. We went on the PRR from Steubenville to Pittsburgh, to Philadelphia and finally on to Atlantic City. From Steubenville to Harrisburg the train was steam powered. Then to Philadelphia it was pulled by a GG1. I woke up when we were pulled by the GG1 and asked my father what happened to the whistle. Thanks to the war travel out of the five trips we managed to get a Pullman berth only once. You were lucky even to get a pillow. Those were the good days when you could go almost anywhere by train.
Well, if this thread is about GG1 memories I’ve only got one, and it goes like this:
In 1975 I was a Marine stationed in Quantico VA. I didn’t have a car yet so I was taking the bus up north to visit some friends. As the bus passed the yards for Washington Union Station on an elevated section of highway I was able to look down into the yards and saw a locomotive staging area. It was full of what I now know were GG1’s in Penn Central black.
“Wow!” I thought to myself, “Look at all those Art Deco diesels! I didn’t think there were any around anymore!” Hey, I wasn’t a railfan at the time, so what did I know? As far as I knew there were steam engines (all gone except for museums and tourist lines) and diesels, a locomotive was one or the other so electrics never entered my mind.
Anyway, that’s my GG1 story. And I did admire the look of those G’s! How could you NOT admire a locomotive that looked like it was popped out of a Jell-O mold?
Here’s my GG1 story. In 1970, at the age of 11, I was a budding railfan. We flew on a United DC8 Detroit-Newark to visit my aunt and uncle, who lived in New Brunswick. It turns out that their home was only about 4-5 houses from the NEC. Every time I heard a train approaching, I ran out to get the locomotive road numbers. At the speeds that they ran, you didn’t have much time. We took the train into NYC one day, but it was a Metroliner.
I recall GG1s in Brunswick Green in the Sunnyside yards on Long Island when taking the train into Penn in the 1960s. In the 1970s I caught a ride with a guy on my ship and we travelled from Norfolk to New Brunswick, New Jersey where I would take the train the rest of the way. Waiting on the platform for the next Northbound train, a long train, maybe 22 coaches roared South being pulled by 2 black painted,lettered for Amtrak GG1s at a very high rate of speed. The ozone they gave off made my military haircut stand on end. I could really feel it, like being in the biggest lightning storm I’ve ever experienced.
I got a job as a boiler inspector with Hartford Steam Boiler in October of 1991. Their office was in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. I had to get down there to pick up the company car so I figured out how to do it by train. Taking NJT out of the Hoboken Terminal, I saw a Tuscan red GG1 sitting in the outer approach to the station. I wonder if it’s still there?
The GG1 had one of those horrible “BLAT” sounding one note horns. Shoulda copied the New Haven and had a Hancock Air Whistle (I want to find a digital rendering of the whistle so I can subsitute it on my PRR motors. I don’t care about real life, in my universe, they got whistles)
Side note, the GG1 was my dad’s favorite motive power. He came from a railroading family (granddad was a railroad machinist) and worked as a steam fireman for three years after high school to earn money for college. This was 1936-39 and the Depression was still in force. I think the GG1 became a symbol of a brighter future, both for railroads and the nation. On business trips to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston, he would board the Pennsy at Elizabeth, NJ and it was an awesome experience to be on the platform as the GG1 thundered in, making the ground shake. I think dad had a bit of a grin as he boarded a train pulled by his favorite. He loved the GG1 so much that I got a GG1 hauled Congressional for my Lionel layout (and I KNEW it was Dad’s engine)
The story I heard is that whereas the GG1 from the outside looks enormous, the two cabs and the walkway between them are rather cramped because a large transformer is located between them?
What I remember of my first trip behind a GG1 was the kick in the seat of the pants when they accelerated a train. It was noticeably greater than the diesels that had led the train into Harrisburg. Similar to that of trolley buses I rode.
The originals had something far better than a dinky Hancock Air Whistle; they had what I believe were standard PRR passenger whistles (early photos show these, on the roof just behind one of the pans). The A220s are clearer warning for high speed when blown on air…
The cabs are cramped not just because of the transformer but the heavy truss structure in the cab framing. For real cramped quarters, though, go to the toilet…
We had a Hancock on one of our locos for use in the more populated areas in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake (track now gone). The FRA made us take it off because it wasn’t loud enough, although that was really why we used it.
Some local residents didn’t appreciate the change.
Thanks for those shots Balt, they kind of reenforce what I’ve read about GG1’s, that is, as zoomy-looking and futuristic they were on the outside they were kind of primitive on the inside, at least by present-day standards.
(The obvious age on the interiors pictured notwithstanding.)
They were cold in the winter, hot in the summer, forward visibility was limited, they were dirty drafty and had lousy seating but boy oh boy were they strong and durable. This is me in 1970 at New Haven station on train #141.
