Hello I haven't posted in what felt like ages! I have a Shorty GG1 Model I bought at a Train show for $5 and its in pretty good condition, doesn't really run but I have contacts who can get it runnin.... I've been pondering if a protoype like it actually exists in real life and they may be calling it a GG1 to sell more? sure maybe not a mass prouced model that was widly distibuted in actual practice but it would be highly appriciated to get to the bottom of this! "Peace and Love, Peace and Love" -Max
Post a photo.
That Tyco GG1 is a completely made up thing. Not sure what the exact origin of the shell is, it's a shortened form of a GG1, but then they put it on their 6 axle Alco chassis which is like nothing that ever existed. That model came rather later in Tyco's life as they were doing anything and everything t see if they could get people to buy, including making the stuff even lower and lower quality to keep it cheap. Kind of like how the Chatanooga Choo Choo loco started out as a 2-8-2, then it was a 2-8-0, and finally an 0-8-, where, since the boiler shell and so forth was all the same, they just took off the lead and trailing trucks, it was all out of proportion. Of course, at the time, they were owned by a big food conglomerate, who knew NOTHING about the hobby of model trains, and it showed.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hi there,
Just wondering if it could be converted to a could have been similar to the PRR R1 electric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_R1 or a P5 with the body dimensions etc? Just a thought!
Cheers from Australia and Merry Xmas,
Trevor
Probably the best use for this $5 find is to totally weather and cut up the shell and make it a gondola load from the era when the GG1s were being scrapped in large quantities.
Dave Nelson
I do not have a picture, but over 20 years ago a modeller here in town put a Tyco GG1 shell on an Overland Drive and made it into a bizarre diesel locomotive.
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It had fans on the hood ends and intake grilles below.
It ran great, but looked too weird, even for me.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
xdfordJust wondering if it could be converted to [something] similar to the PRR R1 electric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_R1 or a P5 with the body dimensions etc? Just a thought!
Neither of those is particularly similar to the Tyco shell contours except in general vague similarity. Both the R1 and the P5a 'modifieds' had noses much more like the original Dohner nose on the prototype GG1 ("Rivets" 4899/4800) and to use the Tyco shell you'd have to overlay styrene bent to the right contours with added rivet detail to get the distinctive contours. Of course the side detail is all wrong for the R1 and I suspect the length is all wrong for the "P5am" so more cutting and pasting; the entire underframe would either have to be scratchbuilt or made via some kind of 3D printing.
The DD2, and presumably the whole family that would have been built for the Pittsburgh electrification in the 1943 plan and, by extension, the first-generation V1 mechanical steam turbine, have details that don't remotely approximate the contours of the Tyco shell.
dknelsonProbably the best use for this $5 find is to totally weather and cut up the shell and make it a gondola load from the era when the GG1s were being scrapped in large quantities.
And then kitbash an E44 shell for the tri-mount chassis to use to pull it...
And then kitbash an E44 shell for the tri-mount chassis to use to pull it... I have never quite understood why Tyco didn't at least try that as a 'prototype' even if some of the details were off..