The image that inspired a life-long subscription to Trains Magazine

My Spring 2011 issue of Classic Trains Magazine arrived yesterday (Thursday, January 27, 2011).
“There it is,” I said to my wife, pointing to the magazine; “the image that inspired a life-long subscription to Trains Magazine.”
It was William D. Middleton’s classic picture of a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 roaring by at speed.
I went downstairs into our cellar, and brought up my treasured March 1964 issue of Trains Magazine — from our groaning stacks of Trains Magazines I’ve never thrown out.
17 pages on the GG1 (“Jee-Jee-ONE;” I only say that because a friend was mispronouncing it “Jee-Jee-Eye”) electric locomotive, what I consider to be the greatest railroad-locomotive of all time.
I started paging through it.
There it was (illustrated below), the image that inspired a life-long subscription to Trains Magazine.


(Photo by William D. Middleton.)

Regrettably, it’s a two-page spread; I can’t fix the center magazine-crease.
The picture is a reprise of a similar photo of a North Shore Electroliner Middleton also took.

Photo by William D. Middleton.

But his Electroliner picture lacks the incredible drama of his GG1 picture.
Or maybe I’m reading into it.
It depicts what I always saw.
Every time I saw a GG1 it was doing 80-100 mph!
I was lucky enough to grow up a teenager in northern Delaware, not far from the Pennsylvania Railroad’s electrified New York City-to-Washington DC line, where the GG1 reigned supreme.


This thing is probably doing 90! (Photo by BobbaLew.)

That line is now Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
A single GG1 could put almost 9,000 horsepower to the railhead; that’s four or more diesel locomotives from that time.
In 1959 a neighbor and I rode a GG1-powered train back from Philadelphia to Wilmington, DE.


The southbound Congressional Limited, 17 cars. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

It was 17 cars.
Within minutes we were up to 80 mph!
About 1960 I pedaled my bicycle up to Claymont station on the New York City-to-Washington DC line.
Claymont was a mere commuter station; not a stop for express trains.
I had my father’s ancient Kodak Hawkeye camera. Verichrome-Pan 120 black-and-white film, 2&1/4 by 3&1/4 (or was it 3&1/2), eight exposures.
A 1930s camera, with a fastest speed of only 1/125th of a second.


STAND BACK! (Photo by BobbaLew.)

I stationed myself beside a small light-standard next to the sidewalk that served as a loading platform.
(You can see another light-standard in the picture.)
The railroad was four tracks wide, and what I expected was commuter and freight operations on the outside tracks, and express-passenger on the inside tracks.
I could hear an express-train coming, really hammering, so I hooked my left arm around the light-standard, and set up to take a picture.
But the train was on the outside track.
WHAM! It slammed by doin’ at least 90.
The suction was so great, I woulda been sucked into the train had I not had my arm hooked around that light-standard.
The picture above is what I got; stopped with only 1/125th of a second.
I will never forget it. That’s goin’ to my grave.
Sadly, many GG1s were saved, but none are operable.
It’s partly the power-source, that they were electrified.
The catenary (“KAT-in-air-eee” — the overhead trolley wire; named that because it was suspended on a catenary of cables) is still 25-cycle AC, but it’s now 60,000 volts instead of the 11,000 that served the GG1.
But the main problem is the transformers on the locomotive. When functioning, they were filled with a PCB fluid, since determined toxic. The transformers were either removed, or drained and filled with sand or concrete.
Without that transformer, or some kind of transformer, a GG1 isn’t operable.
People want to restore a GG1 to operation, but it wouldn’t be a GG1.
What it would be is current technology in a GG1 body.
Well, I guess that’s desirable, but then we need the overhead current to operate it.
The GG1 was probably the greatest styling-job ever done by an industrial-designer.
The designer was Raymond Loewy (“low-eee”), although his contribution was minor.
The engine is a steeple-cab; not original to Loewy.
Pennsy was aware it had a great locomotive, so they called in Loewy to fiddle it.
What he did were two things:
—1) Minor styling fillips, e.g. the original five gold pin-stripe “cat-whisker” paint-scheme, and rounding the front door around the headlight, and
—2) Convincing the railroad to use an all-welded shell instead of a riveted shell.

Photo by Larry Morgan.

“Old Rivets.”

Only one GG1 has the riveted shell, #4800, the first one.
All the rest are welded shell.
Perhaps the best is #4935, a restored GG1 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania near Strasburg, PA.
It was repainted and restored years ago in the original cat-whisker paint scheme.


(Photo by Tom Hughes.)

It can’t run.
It gets towed to exhibitions.

• I’m a railfan, and have been since age-two (I’m almost 67).
• My wife of 43+ years is “Linda.”
• “Steeple-cab” means a long nose (and rear) with a raised locomotive operating cab in the middle. The GG1 is a “steeple-cab.”
• “Tom Hughes” is my brother-from-Delaware’s only son Tom. He graduated college as a computer-engineer. Like me he’s a railfan.