I have an around the room shelf layout and the area under the bench work is used for storage. I have lots of railroad and non-railroad items in large plastic storage boxes stacked 2-high as well as rolling 3 drawer cabinets that I keep all my old railroad related magazines as well as lots of rolling stock that is out-of-use, mostly passenger cars. Every once in a while I'll find a hidden treasure from the past as I did this afternoon. I had to get at a problem undermount switch machine and slid two stacked storage boxes out from under the layout to get at it. There I saw on top of the boxes was a Pemco Pennsy GG-1 in Brunswick Green. I remember that it was given to me by my sister sometime back in the 1980s. At the time I was modeling a freelance verion of the UP and I didn't want to tell her that the GG-1 didn't fit with the theme of my railroad so naturally I hung onto it. As I was planning my current layout, I considered adding a short stretch of catenary to the layout and using the GG-1 to bring passenger trains in and out of staging at the end of an electrified district but decided against it. The GG-1 was left in its box and I lost track of it. I figured I must have sold it to my LHS because I had no idea what I had done with it until this afternoon.
The GG-1 was still in its original box which was caked with dust. When I opened it up, it was still in mint condition. I believe the pantographs raise and lower although I didn't want to test them out. It looks like they have wipers on top and could be powered with overhead cantenary even thought they can be powered through the wheels.
I put it on the layout and ran it on address 0000. It ran beautifully without a hint of a hesitation. I really wish I could put this to use but it's just not practical. Even if I were to put up a short stretch of catenary, It would have to pass through tunnels with too low of a clearance for the GG-1 to pass with the pantographs raised. I might run it occasionally and imagine it is running under catenary but I can't see working this into an active part of the roster.
John-NYBWI might run it occasionally and imagine it is running under catenary
Mike
The CATenary will lower the pantograph down so that it will fit in the tunnel. You can use the imaginary CATenary around most of the layout although the poles should be in place to suggest the bounds of this locomotive. Install the wire just outside of the portal to lower the pantograph and keep it down throuch the tunnel.
I would not model the UP or even the BNSF in any event. PRR or the NYC are more to my liking. Maybe you should run a DD-1 Jackshaft locomotive.
I wonder what the world would have lloked like if BNSF and NYCS had merged.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
BroadwayLion The CATenary will lower the pantograph down so that it will fit in the tunnel. You can use the imaginary CATenary around most of the layout although the poles should be in place to suggest the bounds of this locomotive. Install the wire just outside of the portal to lower the pantograph and keep it down throuch the tunnel. I would not model the UP or even the BNSF in any event. PRR or the NYC are more to my liking. Maybe you should run a DD-1 Jackshaft locomotive. I wonder what the world would have lloked like if BNSF and NYCS had merged.
The NYC had long been history when BN and ATSF merged so that was never on the table. There wasn't even a BN when the Penn Central was formed. Until the merger of the Norfolk and Western with the Nickel Plate and Wabash, no railroad reached from the Atlantic to the Missouri River. Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans were as far west as any east coast railroad reached. I don't know if a true transcontinental company was ever in the cards.
John-NYBW BroadwayLion The CATenary will lower the pantograph down so that it will fit in the tunnel. You can use the imaginary CATenary around most of the layout although the poles should be in place to suggest the bounds of this locomotive. Install the wire just outside of the portal to lower the pantograph and keep it down throuch the tunnel. I would not model the UP or even the BNSF in any event. PRR or the NYC are more to my liking. Maybe you should run a DD-1 Jackshaft locomotive. I wonder what the world would have lloked like if BNSF and NYCS had merged. The NYC had long been history when BN and ATSF merged so that was never on the table. There wasn't even a BN when the Penn Central was formed. Until the merger of the Norfolk and Western with the Nickel Plate and Wabash, no railroad reached from the Atlantic to the Missouri River. Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans were as far west as any east coast railroad reached. I don't know if a true transcontinental company was ever in the cards.
I AM A LION... The Grand and Glorious and Most Imperial LION,
and I say that it would be a good thing!
Questions?
John-NYBWThere wasn't even a BN when the Penn Central was formed. Until the merger of the Norfolk and Western with the Nickel Plate and Wabash, no railroad reached from the Atlantic to the Missouri River. Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans were as far west as any east coast railroad reached. I don't know if a true transcontinental company was ever in the cards.
How about Canadian Pacific?
Gary
There are GG1s in the collections of the National RR Museum in Green Bay WI and the Illinois Railway Museum in Union IL. They got there by rail from the east. So that is a plausible way to run a GG1 on a non Pennsy/Conrail layout.
I had a Pemco GG1 too back when I was a Pennsy modeler and it was indeed a nice looking replica. I went so far as to replace the horn hooks with Kadees but then changed my interests to C&NW and I sold the model. My recollection is that some of the drive wheels were plastic. If that is correct I suspect it would probably not have withstood years and years of heavy running.
Dave Nelson
Model Railroading can be about rigidly sticking to prototype, including road names and locations, or it can be total fun and fantasy with an anything goes approach. In our youth, for most of us vaguely remembered from the last century, we still remember pulling passenger cars with a different road's switch engines, freely mixing eras and the like. I am proud to say, at least, that I never had dinosaurs or flying saucers, but I've certainly sinned against the rivet counters through the years.
As I've gotten older (I debated saying "matured," but I still play with trains) I've become more prototypical and focused on era and my railroad, the Milwaukee. But, when Bachmann came out with a bargain-priced GG-1, I had to have it.
I have a mermaid, Dorothy, the Lion, the Woodsman and the Scarecrow on the Yellow Brick Road, and a warehouse tucked in the back with Mom's Robot Oil on the loading dock door. So why can't there be a fictitious rail connection bringing passenger service under wire from the Pennsylvania to the Milwaukee?
Back in the 20th century, I had a GG-1 and a couple of Lionel Lines passenger cars, so I had to have one.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyI am proud to say, at least, that I never had dinosaurs or flying saucers,
-mdf
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
I guess I didn't make it clear in the OP. My freelanced UP layout was the one in my previous house. My current layout is a completely fictional eastern railroad, one that could have existed, that interacts with both the NYC and the Pennsy. Both have trackage rights on portions of the layout so plausibility of a GG-1 on the layout is not the issue. The problem with making it believeable is putting up the catenary. That seems like more trouble than it is worth for one loco.
The BN merger was in waiting for approval stage when PC began operation.
John-NYBWThe problem with making it believeable is putting up the catenary. That seems like more trouble than it is worth for one loco.
I feel the same about the Acela sets that I have. I've only ran them once, when I first got them.
Mike.
My You Tube
John-NYBWThere I saw on top of the boxes was a Pemco Pennsy GG-1 in Brunswick Green. I remember that it was given to me by my sister sometime back in the 1980s.
It would have to pass through tunnels with too low of a clearance for the GG-1 to pass with the pantographs raised. I might run it occasionally and imagine it is running under catenary but I can't see working this into an active part of the roster.
Texas Zephyr John-NYBW There I saw on top of the boxes was a Pemco Pennsy GG-1 in Brunswick Green. I remember that it was given to me by my sister sometime back in the 1980s. I remember that model. Pemco did 4 or 5 locos that were worth the money to buy.
John-NYBW There I saw on top of the boxes was a Pemco Pennsy GG-1 in Brunswick Green. I remember that it was given to me by my sister sometime back in the 1980s.
I remember that model. Pemco did 4 or 5 locos that were worth the money to buy.
I remember buying 3 Pemco Pennsy steamers I think through Trainworld at what seemed like a blowout price. I think they were 4-6-2 types with Vanderbilt tenders. When I got them I discovered the motor was in the tender. The loco was just a plastic shell being pushed by the tender. Even the driver wheels were plastic. They ran OK but it was just too weird for me. I'd never seen any other steamers made that way.
The other on this forum people were talking about Rapido trains. Someone showed that they had Rapido Turbo triains, which I thought were very nice. Then I found out I actuaully have one, hiddden below my other un-opened locos....
I think I need to hide more trains in my basement so I can have more treasurers in the future!
Jerry
crossthedog MisterBeasley I am proud to say, at least, that I never had dinosaurs or flying saucers, I LOVE the scene of the guys trying to wrangle a stegasaurus (or whatever) back into a barn, with them all pulling on ropes as though trying to handle a rambunctious bronc. I can't remember where I saw that, but I thought it was brilliant. It wasn't out of scale or too prominent, just another workday on the farm. -mdf
MisterBeasley I am proud to say, at least, that I never had dinosaurs or flying saucers,
I LOVE the scene of the guys trying to wrangle a stegasaurus (or whatever) back into a barn, with them all pulling on ropes as though trying to handle a rambunctious bronc. I can't remember where I saw that, but I thought it was brilliant. It wasn't out of scale or too prominent, just another workday on the farm.
You probably saw the stegasaurus on John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid unless somebody else copied it.
John-NYBWYou probably saw the stegasaurus on John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid unless somebody else copied it.
Here's the photo - Number 13 aka "Emma"
(158) Pinterest
Perhaps inspired by the Bengal and Assam in India during World War 2
https://imgur.com/Qh6weMu
BEAUSABRE John-NYBW You probably saw the stegasaurus on John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid unless somebody else copied it. Here's the photo - Number 13 aka "Emma" (158) Pinterest Perhaps inspired by the Bengal and Assam in india during World War 2 (158) Pinterest https://imgur.com/Qh6weMu
John-NYBW You probably saw the stegasaurus on John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid unless somebody else copied it.
Perhaps inspired by the Bengal and Assam in india during World War 2
Yes, that's the one I was thinking of. I'd forgotten they were trying to pull the stegasaurus into John Allen's famed engine house. A number of commercially made two stall engine houses were sold using that as a model. Revell made a brick version of it that was later produced by other companies. Fine Scale Miniatures created a craftsman wood kit base on the design about 40 years ago. I couldn't afford one then but I picked one up on ebay a few years ago. It's high on my to-do list and will be a focal point of the engine terminal at the end of my shortline.