What does the 'GG' in 'GG1' stand for?
The Pennsylvania Railroad used letters to classify their locos. "G" was a 4-6-0. I guess the GG1 could be thought of as two 4-6-0 locos permenantly coupled back to back. No idea where the "1" came from.
Here is a link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRR_locomotive_classification
Leslie Caron?
I believe the "1" means the first model of the GG type. Had an updated or significantly redesigned electric locomotive with the same wheel arangement come along it would have been a GG2, but of course that never happened.
The PRR indeed viewed the GG1 as two ten-wheelers back-to-back. The users' manual describes the wheel arrangement as 4-6-0+0-6-4.
But the locomotive's symmetry is superficial, with the internal components (motors, transformer, switchgear, pneumatics, boiler, etc.) located eclectically under the shell. For example, the motor trucks are not at all interchangeable: They differ at the articulation between them, just like any common hinge. And the first 4 motors (2 axles) on the front truck have their pinions on the right side, the rest (4 axles) have them on the left. (I once took an opportunity to crawl under one to verify this.)
Bob Nelson
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