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Has a GG1 ever been restored to running order?

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art11758, I think that you have seen one of the rotary converters which is usually a 60Hz polyphase motor driving an alternator with different pole pairs so a frequency change can be obtained. The lower frequencies, especially in the early French, German and Swiss days were, because a low frequency AC motor has less sparking then the conventional AC motor running at 50 or 60 Hz. DC was mostly used before and experiments were done with laminated steel in AC motors but sparking at the brushes caused extra stress and premature insulation breakdown which was somewhat reduced with the lower frequency. In Europe 15 kV 16 2/3 Hz was and is still used in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and parts of Norway, also with rotary motor alternator sets although in switzerland certain hydro stations provided the 15 kV 16 2/3 Hz for the railways I believe. Some may have been replaced with solid state. France has gone to 25 kV  50 Hz while Italy, Belgium have 3 kV DC and The Netherlands 1500 V DC. The GG1 was a fantastic locomotive, unfortunately i have never seen one at work but read about these masters of engineering with amazing high power output and reliability. It would be fantastic to see one in working order although the costs and manhours are probably prohibitive to realise it.   edited for typo's
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