Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Pennsylvania GG 1...

The Pennsylvania Railroad's GG1 electric locomotives were built between 1934 to 1943 at the PRR shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with a total of 139 units constructed. They remained in service with the PRR's successors The Penn Central Railroad until the early 1980's. The GG1 became one of the most recognized and famous classes of locomotive worldwide.

The GG1s were large locomotives, 79 feet 6 inches long and weighing 477,000 pounds. The GG1 was designed to run on the standard Pennsylvania Railroad catenary power of 11,000 Volts AC, 25 Hz. One flaw in the design of the GG1 became apparent in the Blizzard of 1958. This storm, which swept across the northeastern United States, began on February 16. The usually unstoppable GG1s were knocked from service when their electrical components were shorted out due to moisture.

This unit #4859 in located in the Harrisburg transportation center with an old all wood PRR caboose behind it. What a beautiful site it is, the only thing in my mind that can compare to it is the T1 locomotive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Brad,

Like the train shots!!!! Need to post this on http://www.railpictures.net/

Cincy Bill