NYtrainspotter
"Borrowed Time"
There is no story like the story of the GG1.
They were concieved in the years immediately preceeding World War 2 (1934) and built by PRR and GE at the railroads Altoona shops up until 1943. 139 of these motors were the backbone of PRR's electric fleet for over 30 years. Arguably they were the most successful example of electric traction in US railroad history.
While most of the products of Altoona were gone long before my time ,the GG1 was the last survivng testimony to the "Standard Railroad of The World" as the PRR called itself in its heyday.
Surviving the PRR , its successor the PC, and even into the Conrail era ,the GG1s were running on borrowed time by the late 1970's .
Two of them pass the remains of North Elizabeth Station on a sweltering day in 1977 with a TOFC train , pushing a hot wind ahead that smells of burning sand and balkalite.
Their labors are almost at an end. Stress fractures in their cast frames, PCPs in their transformers ,and the transfer of the NEC to Amtrak will combine to kill them after 40 years of faithful service...
Within 4 years these mighty motors will be done for good.
North Elizabeth NJ Main Line New York to Philadelphia/NEC CR
"Borrowed Time"
There is no story like the story of the GG1.
They were concieved in the years immediately preceeding World War 2 (1934) and built by PRR and GE at the railroads Altoona shops up until 1943. 139 of these motors were the backbone of PRR's electric fleet for over 30 years. Arguably they were the most successful example of electric traction in US railroad history.
While most of the products of Altoona were gone long before my time ,the GG1 was the last survivng testimony to the "Standard Railroad of The World" as the PRR called itself in its heyday.
Surviving the PRR , its successor the PC, and even into the Conrail era ,the GG1s were running on borrowed time by the late 1970's .
Two of them pass the remains of North Elizabeth Station on a sweltering day in 1977 with a TOFC train , pushing a hot wind ahead that smells of burning sand and balkalite.
Their labors are almost at an end. Stress fractures in their cast frames, PCPs in their transformers ,and the transfer of the NEC to Amtrak will combine to kill them after 40 years of faithful service...
Within 4 years these mighty motors will be done for good.
North Elizabeth NJ Main Line New York to Philadelphia/NEC CR