In a classic Pennsylvania Railroad scene, GG1 4804 leads a northbound passenger train out of Philadelphia 30th Street Station and across the wide Schuylkill River, bound for New York, on the TS2015 Northeast Corridor route.
The Pennsylvania Railroad created one of America’s
all-time classics – the GG1 electric – in the 1930s.
Gary Dolzall shares the story of this fabled locomotive.
It is a mark of the locomotive’s esteemed stature in railroad history that to merely mention “the G” will, for train enthusiasts in North American, immediately bring to mind one thing and one thing only: The Pennsylvania Railroad’s magnificent GG1 electric.
Through its beauty, performance, and longevity, the GG1 attained a position of reverence among both working railroaders and enthusiasts that few locomotives will ever attain. Remarkably, the GG1 was born in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and would proceed to serve in mainline service for just shy of half-a-century.
It is was the Pennsylvania Railroad’s great electrification project of the 1920s and 1930s – a program that would eventually electrify 244 miles of PRR trackage at a cost of $175 million (US) and that today represents the bustling New York-Washington, D.C., segment of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor – that sired the GG1.
Born on the design tables of Pennsy’s electrical engineering staff, with input from suppliers Baldwin, Westinghouse, and General Electric, the GG1’s genealogy could be traced in particular to a pair of previous electric locomotives, one from the Pennsy and one from the New Haven Railroad. The PRR P5 class 2-C-2 electrics, first built in 1932, were the GG1’s immediate predecessors, while the New Haven’s big EP-3 boxcab electrics, which PRR tested, gave to the GG1 design its lanky 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement.
The prototype GG1 – originally numbered 4899, but soon to become PRR 4800 and gain the lifelong nickname “Old Rivets” – was constructed in 1934 by Baldwin/Westinghouse and began testing in August of that year. PRR quickly (and rightly) deemed the GG1 a success, and the railroad ordered 57 more (4801-4857) for 1935 delivery. These units would variously be constructed by Baldwin, Westinghouse, General Electric, and the Pennsy itself. With a total weight of 460,000 pounds (and 300,000 pounds on drivers), the big G’s delivered 4,620 horsepower and 75,000 pounds of tractive effort. The prototype locomotive generally established the GG1s unmistakable shape – with two cabs for bi-directional operation set back along a stylish sculpted carbody. The original GG1’s carbody was of rivet construction (thus its nickname) – but then came the soothing design hand of famous industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Loewy refined the GG1’s carbody styling further, convinced PRR management to construct the production GG1s using welding techniques rather than rivets, and created the now-famous Pennsy five-stripe livery. Loewy later said “Brute force can have a sophisticated appearance,” and indeed he proved it in steel with the GG1.
Through 1943, a total of 139 Pennsylvania Railroad GG1s would be constructed (with slight variations among the orders in weight and tractive effort) and the “G’s” would become the mainstays of PRR’s electrified operations, hauling the flagship Broadway Limited, the PRR’s premier Washington-New York Congressionals, commuter “Clockers,” freight tonnage, mail and express, and, well, you name it.
During their years in PRR service, the GG1s were most often dressed in Brunswick green with gold striping (first the Loewy five-stripes, then, beginning in 1955, a standard livery of Brunswick green with a single broader gold stripe). But through the years, a handful of GG1s bore special liveries. In the early 1950s a total of 10 GG1s wore a Tuscan red and five-stripe livery for use on PRR’s Congressional and Senator trains. A similar Tuscan red and single-stripe scheme was later worn by two GG1s, and a trio of GG1s – 4866, 4872, and 4880 – wore a special silver with red stripe livery, also for use in hauling the premier Congressional consists.
With the merger of Pennsylvania and New York Central in early 1968 to form Penn Central, the GG1s began to be dressed in PC’s basic black livery (although many carried on for years in the single-stripe PRR-era scheme) and in December 1968, when Penn Central absorbed the New Haven Railroad, the GG1s suddenly gained new ground to cover, operating regularly from New York Penn Station north to New Haven, Connecticut, via the Hell Gate Bridge line.
In the final years of service for the GG1, there were myriad and rapid changes along the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak was formed in 1971 and Amtrak acquired a fleet of GG1s, some of which were painted in a bright red, blue, and silver livery. One unit – Amtrak 4935 – was faithfully redressed in its full original Pennsy five-stripe scheme. PC was absorbed into Conrail in 1976 and none other than “Old Rivets” wore both the full CR blue livery and a special red-white-and-blue American Bicentennial scheme. With the arrival of its AEM-7 electrics, Amtrak finally phased out its GG1s and it was left to New Jersey Transit, which utilized a baker’s dozen of hand-me-down GG1s on its North Jersey Coast Line, to bring the GG1 operating era to a close in October 1983.
Happily, no less than 16 GG1s have been preserved, most notably “Old Rivets” at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. And the full experience of the famed GG1 awaits you in Train Simulator 2015. Together with the Northeast Corridor route, the PRR GG1 DLC provides the opportunity to return to the glory years of the Pennsy GG1. A DTG Marketplace releases provide the opportunity to take the throttle of GG1s in Pennsy’s special silver livery, and you can find a full variety of excellent scenario for the GG1s available free at Steam Workshop.
Designer Raymond Loewy once remarked that the GG1 was “One of the good memories of my life.” And surely, there were countless railroaders and rail enthusiasts over the decades who came to very much agree. – Gary Dolzall
Predecessor of the GG1 on the Pennsylvania was the 3,750-horsepower, 2-C-2 P5 class boxcab electric. Built by Westinghouse in 1932, P5 4716 was still going strong in this photo taken three decades later in 1962. Dolzall collection photo.
Pennsy GG1s were equally at home hauling the railroad’s flagship passenger trains, commuter “Clockers,” freight, or mail and express. PRR 4903 wears the Brunswick Green livery with a single wide gold stripe and large PRR logo that became standard for the electrics from 1955 onward. Dolzall collection photo.
Racing against twilight, both figuratively and literally, a four-decades-old Amtrak GG1 still wearing Penn Central basic black, races north with an Amtrak express at Bowie, Maryland on the Northeast Corridor in 1978. Gary Dolzall photo.
In a captivating scene replicated countless times over the decades, Pennsylvania GG1s meet in the environs of New York’s famed Penn Station. All screenshots by the author.
The full verve of the Pennsy-era comes alive on TS2015’s Northeast Corridor route as three GG1-powered trains meet at speed in a scene from the Elphaba’s Workshop scenario “Morning Congressional,” available at Steam Workshop.
Pennsylvania applied a special silver and red livery to a trio of its big electrics for service on its premier New York-Washington Congressional passenger trains, and the GG1 in this special livery is available at Marketplace. PRR GG1 4866 races north through New Jersey (above), then displays its famous face during a stop at Newark (below).
Coming off the west line from Harrisburg, PRR GG1 4912 is swinging past Zoo Tower in Philadelphia as it powers a Pennsy “Truc-Train” piggyback. The GG1s were often employed in freight duty.
The GG1 may have been a massive and stylish locomotive, but cozy, and in fact rather austere, was where a “G” engineer managed its 4,620 horsepower!
Displaying the design genius of Raymond Loewy in its sculpted lines and five-stripe Pennsy livery, GG1 4853 makes its stop at Newark Penn Station (above), then pulls away from the platform (below), bound for Philadelphia and Washington, D. C. There can be little question why Loewy called the GG1, “one of the good memories of my life.”
