Show Us Your GG1 Engine

I heard the GG1 had an electric steam heat boiler ...

Seems to me that the Morlitz Lines GG1 needs to be added to this list. Here it is with some guy holding it (it being an MTH PS2 engine) at Marty Fitzhenry's house:

Lionel GG1 in Brunswick Green with those beautiful Cat's Whiskers.  I was also raised in Northeast Philly in the 1950s about 10 blocks away from the Northeast Corridor racetrack and like all the kids in our neighborhood I was expressly forbidden to hang out near the railroad tracks and like all the kids in my neighborhood I did it anyway.  I saw many sleek GG1s sprinting through the corridor.  They were incredibly quiet.  Unfortunately, one of my fourth grade classmates was killed by one of those silent beauties. 

 

Steve C.

Regarding the steam generators, I'm 99% positive they were oil fired. The steam on the mth and Lionel jlc models is simulating the safety valve release

You are correct; the prototype had an oil fired boiler to generate steam heat for the heavyweight passenger cars. Many of todays models have lettering indicating where the oil fill valve would be.

Did you ever put a nickel or penny on the track and let one of these behemoths run over it?  I grew up about five minutes from Frankford Junction, just where the mainline turns left to head north, the slowest portion of the NE mainline.  We used to put coins on the track.  If you could find them after the GG1 passed, they would be the size of dollar bills.  I loved those days on the tracks.

 

Ron, the newbie.

I was trackside with my parents when the Kennedy funeral train went through Baltimore. Somewhere we have photos of it.

 

Living not far from the Pennsy's NE Corridor, I saw a lot of GG 1s. Only wish I had thought to take my camera!

Did you ever put a nickel or penny on the track and let one of these behemoths run over it?  I grew up about five minutes from Frankford Junction, just where the mainline turns left to head north, the slowest portion of the NE mainline.  We used to put coins on the track.  If you could find them after the GG1 passed, they would be the size of dollar bills.

 

Nickels were too hard to come by in the Fifties to be wasted on sacrifices to the Train Gods. But my friends and I did the experiment with a penny, for a PRR mixed freight, hauled, as I remember, by a string of F3s.

 

The penny vanished altogether.  We never risked our hard-earned pocket change again.

 

I loved those days on the tracks.

 

Yes indeed.  How I wish I'd carried a camera with me at all times, when I was eight years old.

"Two are missing from the pics, the silver or congressional and a green solid stripe."

I thought I saw a green solid stripe in S gauge, but here's an O Lionel for completeness.  This is the TMCC/but soundless unit.

B&OBill

Hendo, you weren't the only one to forget your camera. There are many images taken from the train of folk paying their respects along the track, but sadly very few of the train taken from trackside. They are all amazing and very moving images.

Better add my "baby" #4925.  A Lionel JLC type GG1  One of my favorite engines for sure.

 

 

 

 

Truely a special engine. Part of Americana. I hope to own one some day.

 

Hendo, you weren't the only one to forget your camera. There are many images taken from the train of folk paying their respects along the track, but sadly very few of the train taken from trackside. They are all amazing and very moving images.