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 Lets see your GG1. 

 

Mine is one of few new engines I have.  It is a K-line bought when they came out for $99.

 

It runs very well and was worth the price.  I just could not afford Lionel ones for much more.

 

I do not use overhead wires as until recently my layout was up and down each year making wires too much trouble.

 

Charlie

 

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Wow these are some great GG1s.  Many variations of paint out there too, not just the maroon and dark green I usually think of from Lionel. 

 

JohnGG1 has a great wall full to GG1s and I understand his handle now!

 

Thanks for all the great shots of GG1s and others get out the camera and post yours.

 

It is real easy and convenient with the new OGauge RR forum format with its own picture hosting feature.

 

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Here's an old one, I guess from "GG1 O-gauge history." Photo taken in March 1984. Unit was an early Williams Undecorated unit, which a friend painted and lettered for me. Came in kit form. Very, very heavy. Ran awful. Pilot trucks always derailed. Early can motors loud, slow. I ended up selling it on the Bay for a pittance. Now, you know, I wish I had it back!

 

B&OBill

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Only have three scale sized GG1’s.  But all are significant Motors in GG1 history.

 

4935 was next to last built but more significant it was resurrected to it’s original green with five-stripe look by the “Friends of the GG1” in 77 to run head end on some Amtrak trains.

 

4876 smashed into DC Union Station just days before Ike’s inauguration.  It was green with five-stripes when crashed.  It was resurrected red with five-stripes.

 

Then there is 4829 the most mysterious of all!

I always wonder how many of the GG1 owners out there have actually seen a real GG1 in action.  Since I grew up in Wissinoming, N/E Philadelphia, I was close to:

 

1. The Bachman factory, Erie Avenue (a block from the N/E corridor)

2. Brill Street, named for the factory where the Brill trolleys were made,

3. PRR/PC/Amtrak N/E corridor at Bridge St.

 

I spent the greater part of life from 1954-1983 watching and photographing GG1s as they passed through. 

 

My aunt lived on Worth street and her backyard was facing the tracks.  She was my favorite aunt.  Aunt May, can I go out in the yard?  It was behind her house that I saw the Robert Kennedy funeral train.

 

A grammar school friend Norman also lived in a house that backed up to the track.  Many teens would party on the track and end up a statistic.

 

My clearest memory is watching a black painted PC GG1 coming straight toward me at or above 65 mph.  The old wooden tie 'non-endless' rails made this huge hunk of iron pitch and yaw as it approached.  The ground shook and rumbled, the engine-man would honk that low pitched leslie horn, and she flashed by on the first track (there were four main lines there).  Whatta rush.

 

Anyway, I do have a modern era conventional Lionel 18303 or the W.C Fields model, and my son captured a decent Postwar 2332 with visable stripes and a working horn box.

 

The Acela is fast and quiet, but it can't erase the memory I have of the G's

Great looking G's guys. I have 4 WBB scale GG1's and 1 MTH scale in the Conrail Bicentennial scheme. I also lived in the Philly area all my life and the one thing I remembered is seeing the GG1's running along the mainline thru Philly and the suburbs. Saw the Bicentennial unit at 30th street station in 1976, yes it was gaudy but it was great.   Two are missing from the pics, the silver or congressional and a green solid stripe.

 

 

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Guys, thank you for some great pix. I grew up outside Philly in the 50's and watched and rode behind GG-1 locomotives many times. When school got out here in Boston I would go to live with my Aunt and Uncle in Pennsylvania for the summer. I loved taking the train and watching the engine swap in New Haven from Diesel to GG-1. I still remember the thrill when the G would take off from New Haven. Instant acceleration. Smooth and very fast.

Originally Posted by lionelbob:

I always wonder how many of the GG1 owners out there have actually seen a real GG1 in action...

I have.  Although I lived on the PRR main line, it was in south-central Pennsylvania, where (unfortunately) the electrification never reached.

 

But when I was a kid, my parents would occasionally travel to the Harrisburg area, where I was treated to the sight of overhead catenary and plenty of GG1s to run under it.  I particularly remember a small restaurant at which we stopped one day, and the tracks were just across the road.  We had a magnificent view of those massive GG1s cruising by at relatively low speeds, occasionally sounding their distinctive horns.  I wanted that meal to last forever!

 

And my aunt and uncle lived in Newark, DE, through which the Corridor electrification still runs, as as far as I know.  My cousin and I would occasionally go down to the tracks to watch the GG1s and their trains fly by.  In later years -- the late Seventies -- both of us nearly became smears on the Metroliner's windshield, but that's another story.

 

Although I've had a couple of HO GG1s over the years, it wasn't till just last month that I got my first Lionel semi-scale GG1, a twin-motored MPC 8150 (cab number 4935), new in box.  It's a great locomotive, and it's hauling a string of Lionel 027 PRR streamlined passenger cars around my layout even as I type.  Sorry, no photos yet (I've gotta get to work with that digital camera).

 

The prototype GG1 was an amazing machine.

Some lovely recollections, I'd have loved to see them run. I have seen the one at Harrisburg station and those at the Strasburg Museum, which is better than nothing. I don't think looking at pictures can prepare you for seeing one in the flesh, an awesome loco. Lionel Bob, seeing the Robert Kennedy funeral train would really stay in your mind. I constantly look at pictures from that day, it has always had a very strong effect on me. Thanks again all, for the stories.

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