The Pennsylvania Railroad Class GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 100 mph, and its long operating career of almost 50 years.
Between 1934 and 1943, General Electric and the PRR's Altoona Works built 140 GG1s. The GG1 entered service with the PRR in 1935 and later ran on successor railroads Penn Central, Conrail, and Amtrak. The last GG1 was retired by New Jersey Transit in 1983.
Most have been scrapped, but sixteen are preserved in museums.For photos of the GG-1s in action, see Carleton, Paul. "Under Pennsy Wires" (1977: D. Carleton Railbooks).
Technical information Body and mechanical The GG1 was long and weighed . The frame of the locomotive was in two halves joined with a ball joint, allowing the locomotive to negotiate sharper curves. The body rested on the frame and was clad in welded steel plates. The control cabs were near the center of the locomotive on each side of the main oil-cooled transformer and oil-fired train-heating boiler. This arrangement, first used on the PRR's Modified P5 class, provided for greater crew safety in a collision and provided for bi-directional operation of the locomotive. Using Whyte notation for steam locomotives, each frame is a 4-6-0 locomotive, which in the Pennsylvania Railroad classification system is a "G". The GG1 has two such frames back to back, 4-6-0+0-6-4. The related AAR wheel arrangement classification is 2-C+C-2. This means one frame mounted upon a set of two axles unpowered (the "2") and three axles powered (the "C") hinged with the ball and socket to another frame of the same design (the +). The unpowered "2" axles are at either end of the locomotive. The GG1 was equipped with a Leslie A200 horn.
Electrical and propulsion A pantograph on each end of the locomotive body was used to collect the 11,000 V, 25 Hz alternating current (AC) from the overhead catenary wires. In operation, the leading pantograph was usually kept lowered and the trailing one raised to collect current, since if the rear pantograph failed it would not strike the forward pantograph. A transformer between the two cabs stepped-down the 11,000 V to the voltages needed for the traction motors and other equipment. Twelve GEA-627-A1 traction motors (AC commutator motors, not AC induction motors"In 1935, the PRR introduced the GG1 2-C+C-2 type. The PRR relied on the single-phase commutator motor..."; ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 1880-1990, Michael Duffy, Institution of Engineering and Technology, London, England. 2003, p253. ") drove the GG1's diameter driving wheels on six axles using a quill drive. The power required was such that double traction motors were used, with two motors driving each axle.
The traction motors were six-pole field, 400 volts, 25 Hz rated each at . The motors were frame-mounted using quill drives to the sprung driving wheels, providing a flexible suspension system across a relatively long locomotive frame, which allowed full wheel weight to rest on the rail for good traction regardless of track condition. A series-wound commutator motor's speed is increased by increasing the applied voltage to the motor, thus increasing the current through the motor's armature, which is necessary for increasing its torque and thus increasing motor speed.Middleton, Wm: Appendix, The Interurban EraThe wound armature motor's high starting torque; need for a low-high voltage system to control armature current for speed control; Section 2, p31, Applications Manual for NEMA Motors, Siemans AG, Munich, Germany. The engineer's cab had a 21-position controller for applying voltage to the motors. Four unpowered leading/trailing wheels were mounted on each end of the locomotive.
Steam generation for heating In the 1930s, railroad passenger cars were heated with steam from the locomotive. The GG1 had an oil-fired steam generator to feed its train's "steam line."See sidebar data.
History Beginning in the late 1910s, the PRR received the FF1, but decided that it was too slow for passenger trains; it was relegated to heavy freight service. In the mid-1920s, it received the L5 electric, which had a third-rail power supply at the time. When the Pennsylvania built the O1 and the P5, it chose the P5 over the O1 for its ability and power on the rails. After a grade-crossing accident with the P5a, the cab was moved to the center and was designated P5a (Modified). The P5a’s rigid frame did not track well at high speeds and began developing cracks, leading the PRR to seek an improved design. They found two contacts as early as 1932. The mechanical design of the GG1 was based largely on the EP3, which the PRR had borrowed from the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad to compare it to the P5a. In 1933, the PRR decided to replace its P5a locomotives; it asked General Electric and Westinghouse to design prototype locomotives with a lighter axle load and more power than the P5a, a top speed of at least , a streamlined body design, and a single (central) control cab.
Both companies delivered their prototypes to PRR in August 1934. Westinghouse's R1 was essentially "little more than an elongated and more powerful version of the P5a" with an AAR wheel arrangement of 2-D-2. General Electric delivered its GG1. Both locomotives were tested for ten weeks in regular service between New York and Philadelphia and on a test track in Claymont, Delaware. PRR chose the GG1 because the R1's rigid wheelbase prevented it from negotiating sharp curves and some railroad switches. On November 10, 1934, the railroad ordered 57 locomotives: 14 assembled by General Electric in Erie, 18 by the PRR's own Altoona Works, and 20 more in Altoona with electrical components from Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh and chassis from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone."$15,000,000 order" An additional 81 locomotives were built at Altoona between 1937 and 1943.The Pennsylvania GG1 The Railway Magazine issue 1393 April 2017 pages 40-47
On January 28 1935, to mark the completion of electrification of the line from Washington, D.C., to New York City, PRR ran a special train hauled by Pennsylvania Railroad 4800 before it opened the line for revenue service on February 10. It made a round-trip from D.C. to Philadelphia; it completed the return leg in a record 1 hour and 50 minutes.
In 1945, a Pennsylvania GG1 hauled the funeral train of President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Washington Union Station to New York Pennsylvania Station.FDR's Funeral Train by Robert Klara
In the mid-1950s, with declining demand for passenger train service, GG1s 4801–4857 were re-geared for a maximum speed of and placed in freight service. They initially retained their train-heating steam generator, and were recalled to passenger service for holiday-season mail trains and 'Passenger Extras' such as those run for the annual Army–Navy football game in Philadelphia.
Timetable speed limit for the GG1 was until October 1967, when some were allowed for a couple of years. When Metroliner cars were being overhauled in the late 1970s, GG1s were again allowed 100 mph for a short time when hauling Amfleet cars on trains scheduled to run from New York to Washington in 3 hours and 20 to 25 minutes.
On June 8, 1968, two Penn Central GG1s hauled Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train from New York Penn Station to Washington, D.C.
Shell design The first designer for the GG1 project was industrial designer Donald Roscoe Dohner, who produced initial scale-styling models, although the completed prototype looked somewhat different. At some point, the PRR hired famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy to "enhance the GG1's aesthetics", leading to the final 'Art Deco' design it became known for.
Although it was thought until 2009 that Loewy was solely responsible for the GG1's styling, Dohner is now understood to have contributed as well (Dohner's GG1 designs influenced the modified P5as, which debuted before the GG1 — not, as was thought, the other way around). Loewy did claim that he recommended the use of a smooth, welded body instead of the riveted one used in the prototype. Loewy also added five gold pinstripes and a Brunswick green paint scheme.
In 1952, the paint scheme was changed to Tuscan red; three years later, the pinstripes were simplified to a single stripe and large red keystones were added.
Incidents On September 6, 1943, the Congressional Limited crashed at Frankford Junction, in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The train was pulled by GG1 4930. The accident was caused by a journal box fire (a hot box) on the front of the seventh of the train's 16 cars. The journal box seized and an axle snapped, catching the underside of the truck and catapulting the car upwards. It struck a signal gantry, which peeled off its roof along the line of windows "like a can of sardines". Car #8 wrapped itself around the gantry upright in a figure U. The next six cars were scattered at odd angles over the tracks, and the last two cars remained undamaged. In total, 79 passengers died, all from cars #7 and #8, and 117 were injured, some seriously.ICC Investigation No.2726
On January 15, 1953, train 173, the overnight Federal from Boston, was approaching Washington behind GG1 4876. The train passed a signal north of Washington Union Station between , and the engineer decreased the throttle and started applying the brakes."Accident at Union Station", p. 6. When the engineer realized that the train was not slowing down, and applying the emergency brake had no effect, he sounded the engine's horn. A signalman, hearing the horn and noting the speed of the 4876, phoned ahead to the station master's office. 4876 negotiated several switches at speeds well over the safe limits and entered the station at around ."Accident at Union Station", p. 5. The train demolished the bumping post, continued through the station master's office and into the concourse, where it fell through the floor into the station's basement. Thanks to the evacuation of the concourse, no one died, either in the station or aboard the train. A temporary floor was erected over the engine, and the hole it created, for the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 4876 was eventually dismantled, removed from the basement and reassembled with a new frame and superstructure in Altoona. The reconstructed 4876 survives at the National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation in Baltimore.
The accident was determined to have been caused by a closed "angle cock", a valve on the front and rear of all locomotives and rail cars used in the train's airbrake system, on the rear of the third car in the train."Accident at Union Station", p. 13. The handle of the angle cock had been improperly placed and had contacted the bottom of the car. Once it was closed, the air brake pipe on all the cars behind the closed valve remained at full pressure, keeping the brakes released on those cars while the brakes on the locomotive and first three cars were applied in emergency."Accident at Union Station, p. 14.
The only major electro-mechanical breakdown of the GG1 was caused by a February 1958 blizzard that swept across the northeastern United States and put nearly half of the GG1s out of commission. Exceptionally fine snow, caused by the extreme low temperatures, passed through the traction motors' air filters and into the electrical components. When the snow melted, it short-circuited the components. On about 40 units, the air intakes were later moved to a position under the pantographs.
Disposition
In 1968, the PRR, with its 119 surviving GG1s, merged with the New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and its freight operations were later assumed by government-controlled Conrail, which used 68 GG1s in freight service until the end of electric freight traction in 1980.