The greatest railroad-locomotive of all time

The greatest railroad-locomotive of all time. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday, December 4, 2010) yrs trly finally purchased a model of the greatest railroad-locomotive of all time, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s GG1 (“Jee-Jee-ONE;” I only say that because a friend was mispronouncing it “Jee-Jee-Eye”) electric locomotive.
The model, pictured above, is HO-scale, 87.086 to one, the most popular model-railroading scale — 16.5 millimeters between the rails, 0.650 inches.
It’s powered, but I doubt I will ever run it.

My TWA Connie model.

What I will do is display it with my TWA Lockheed Constellation (at left), and my McLaren (“Mik-LAR-in;” as in Larry) M8D racecar (below).
The Trans-World Airlines (TWA) Lockheed Connie is the greatest airplane ever, and the McLaren Can-Am cars were what I consider the greatest race cars of all time.

My McLaren M8D model.

The Sports-Car Club of America’s Canadian-American Challenge-Cup (“Can-Am”) was a series for two-seater fendered sports-racing cars in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
It usually was comprised of six or more races at different road-racing tracks.
The McLarens were the pinnacle of the series; they used aluminum Big-Block Chevy V8 motors.
They were incredibly fast and powerful; the ultimate hot-rod.
I attended quite a few Can-Am races, and was smitten.
I don’t know as this Gee is what I wanted.
It’s tuscan-red (“TUSS-kin”) with five gold pinstripes, the early “cat-whisker” scheme.
What I wanted was Brunswick-green with the single yellow stripe (see below).
This is the scheme I saw so much of in the early ‘60s when I was a teenager.
And every time I saw one it was doing 80-100 mph!
A model-railroad friend is painting an HO GG1 for me; Brunswick green with the single yellow stripe.
I may prefer it.
I went to a model-train show yesterday with another friend, a retired bus-driver like me.
For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that.
This guy also drove bus for RTS, and is also a model-train fan.
I more prefer the real things; not model-trains.
Model-trains collect dust.
I certainly have been involved in enough model-railroad layouts.
I had model-trains of my own (Lionel), and helped a young neighbor friend build a giant HO model-railroad layout in 1959.
The show, at nearby Rochester Institute of Technology’s Gordon Fieldhouse, put on by RIT’s model-train club, was massive, model-train overload.
Layouts galore, with local dealers displaying their inventory.
I took along $100 cash; the most I’d pay for a GG1 model.
We hadn’t gone very far, and stumbled on a tiny model GG1.
But it was N-scale, and tuscan-red.
N-scale is about half of HO size; 9 millimeters between the rails, 1-to-148 to 1-to-160. (HO is 16.5 millimeters between the rails.)
The seller wanted $92.
“No thanks.” I said. “It’s red and too small.”
My friend gave me an argument. “You’re too picky,” he said. “A GG1 for less than a hundred, and you pass it up!”
“Well of course,” I said. “I have a friend painting a Gee in the scheme I want. I’d rather see that first.”
We kept wandering. Did all the aisles.
I attended this show a year-or-two ago with another friend who has since died, and we only did about two-thirds of the show.
At that point my earlier friend had to sit down.
He was bushed.
My friend yesterday was somewhat hobbled by painful knees, but got around fine.
He purchased an antique New York Central system-map, and I purchased a picture-book about Pennsylvania-Reading (‘RED-ing,’ not ‘READ-ing’) Seashore Lines (PRSL).
“Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines” is an amalgamation of Pennsylvania and Reading railroad-lines in south Jersey to counter the fact the two railroads had too much parallel track. It was promulgated in 1933. It serviced mainly the Jersey seashore from Philadelphia.
“Why that book?” my friend asked.
“Because that’s where it all started,” I said. “PRSL in the late ‘40s.”
The seller said it was his only copy of the PRSL book.
$35.


The real thing. (Photo by Tom Hughes.)

We wandered some more, me looking for the sales-display of the friend who is painting my GG1.
We came up on another GG1, HO-scale, but also cat-whiskers tuscan-red.
$50.
“Wrong color,” I said.
We kept wandering.
We began asking about GG1s.
Someone told us some sellers were along an opposite wall, selling stuff from layout breakups.
I might find a GG1 there.
When I attended this show one-or-two years ago, I thought I stumbled across some GG1s from similar layout breakups.
Most were Brunswick-green, and one perhaps the single-stripe scheme.
I didn’t buy any of those, but should have.
Finally after about two or three hours of wandering, my friend wanted to hit the upstairs concession-stand for something to eat.
Up we went, but “I’d still like to look along that wall down there. I was told I might find a Gee there.”
My friend got a soda, and back down I went.
I found the red N-gauge Gee again, but never saw any HO Gees.
I also found the sale-display of my friend who is painting my GG1.
“Any GG1s?” I asked.
“No, but there’s one back there, although it’s Amtrak,” I was told.
“No Amtraks,” I said. “Only Pennsy.”
I’ve seen quite a few Amtrak GG1s. They look terrible. A modern paint-scheme on a ‘40s deco classic.
Back upstairs I went. By now my friend was quietly perusing my PRSL book.
“I found that N-gauge GG1 again, but it’s the wrong color, it’s too small, and it doesn’t look that good.”
“What I remember is a Brunswick-green N-gauge, and a second GG1 in HO over there,” he said. “But it was red.”
“I remember that too, but I never found it,” I said.
He pointed where it was — not along the back wall.
Back down I went, and found it, a tuscan-red HO GG1; the one for $50.
“Tell ya what,” I told the seller. “How ‘bout a card, so I can call if the repaint doesn’t work out.”
The seller was antsy. “How much can ya offer?”
“$25,” I said.
“How about $35?” he said.
“Lemme see what I got,” I said, taking out my wallet.
I gave him two twenties, and walked away with a five-dollar bill and an HO model of the greatest railroad-locomotive of all time.
It’s a plastic body-casting on cast metal trucks.
It looks great; plastic can usually render more detail.
I lifted one pantograph (“pant-uh-GRAFF”) for the photo, and my wife noticed. The pantographs look great too — very real.
The pantograph is what slides along the overhead trolley-wire, delivering electricity to the locomotive.
The model is AHM (Associated Hobby Manufacturers), and I still have the original box it came in.
I guess it’s not oriental.
My friend pointed out the original price, which had been marked out: $19.95.
“Yeah, but that was back then,” I said.

Photo by BobbaLew.

GG1 #4896 in the single-stripe scheme at the shops in Wilmington, DE.

But I’m not sure of the color.
What I saw so many times was the Brunswick-green single-stripe scheme illustrated at left.
Still, 35 smackaroos for a model GG1 ain’t bad.

• The Pennsylvania Railroad (Pennsy) no longer exists. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years. It was once the largest railroad in the world.
• The Lockheed Constellation airplane is also called the “Connie.”
• The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and finally 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured.
• “Brunswick-green” is a standard Pennsy locomotive color, sort of dark olive-green. “Tuscan-red” was the standard Pennsy passenger color. Many of its passenger diesel-locomotives were tuscan-red, as were its passenger cars. Its MP54 electrified commuter-cars were also tuscan-red; as were many of the houses of Pennsy shop employees in Altoona, PA. (My GG1 model is “tuscan-red.”)
• “Tom Hughes” is my brother-from-Delaware’s only son. He recently graduated college as a computer-engineer. He works for Boeing-Vertol, and like me is a railfan.
• “Amtrak” is a government corporation promulgated in 1970 to take over rail passenger service. It mainly runs passenger trains over the independent railroads with its own equipment, but it also owns and operates its own railroads; e.g. the old Pennsy electrified line from New York City to Washington D.C., the so-called “Northeast Corridor;” although the Corridor has been extended to Boston over the old New York, New Haven & Hartford line.
• “My wife” of almost 43 years is “Linda.”