Is that a plume of steam emanating from the electric GG1? The pic shows it's heading essentially a freight manifest (no passengers), so would it need heat? hrs
I think it was the only way to provide cab heat.
That's a mail and express train. RPO clerks and train crew need heat, and there's probably a P70 rider coach on the rear.
Still, from memory, I do not remember any electric resistor heaters in a GG1 cab. Does anyone?
daveklepperStill, from memory, I do not remember any electric resistor heaters in a GG1 cab. Does anyone?
I can't ask my father but I'm pretty sure there were. Classic Trains has this PDF of the engineer's side and it clearly shows the heater -- which looks to me to be resistive elements in a heavy box. I can easily see why you might miss this or mistake it for something else 'electrical'.
In any case it would make no sense to run a steam generator the size of the unit on a passenger G just for this size box and its counterpart on the fireman's side.
I can only imagine the joy of using the toilet in the dead of winter... steam generator running or not! (Hasn't Jack Neiss told stories about that??)
I stand corrected. It has been about 30 years or so since I was in a GG1 cab. The explanaition that it is a mail train appears correct.
Where was the toilet in a GG1? Far as I know the "john" wasn't heated in F units or Geeps either or most other diesels were they? Switcher crews used bushes, trees, or boxcars....
I just don't remember one. Does anybody?
From the "passing siding": The only time I saw a GG1 was when I stepped off the train in Trenton, NJ, on my way to serve in the US Army Transportation Corps in Germany. It was a cold January AM in 1965 and a GG1 flew by southbound across the platform with a "Clocker" probably. I always loved the GG1 thanks to Lionel O gauge catalogs.
Item: As a Dallas born Texan, outshopped 4/7/46 at 4:08 AM, I beg the Pennsy boys to travel to Texas and kidnap GG1 #4903 from the Museum of the American Railroad in Addison, north of Big D, and get her back in Pennsy country where she deserves to rest. She is in danger of melting under the intense Texas summer heat and she's complaining that her pans are over heated due to all that "Texas Mess" talk too, for goodness sakes!
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer Where was the toilet in a GG1?
Where was the toilet in a GG1?
It's shown in the exploded-view diagram in the special issue and in a couple of pictures on the Web - it's in the end of one hood, under the hatch. VERY much unheated, and I understand in summer there could be wasps nesting in the vicinity...
Thanks Wizlish. I doubt if any diesel or electric locomotive ever had a heated toilet facility on board. Is it true that steam locomotive crews used the fireman's shovel and into the firebox and out the stack the human waste went? Gads, what a thought....
Just like Breaking News that CSX is going to shut down the Clinchfield route....it STINKS!
Well it is true that steam engine crews used to "Number One" on the coal pile, but "Number Two" on a shovel and into the firebox, geez, I don't know, but I guess anything's possible.
It would seem to me that with the frequent stops steamers had to make for coal or water it'd make more sense to use the facilities at the stop.
Amazing what we talk about here, isn't it?
More of "Gads, what a thought..." That very same shovel was also used to heat up food that may require a little warming up.
Old MRK Is that a plume of steam emanating from the electric GG1? The pic shows it's heading essentially a freight manifest (no passengers), so would it need heat? hrs
The answer to the question is that the plume of steam is from the steam generator used to supply steam to trailing passenger cars. In this case, it is probably supplying steam to occupied RPO cars in order to keep their workers warm.
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in both cabs there were big resistor heating elements like the MP54's had on both sides of the G cab.I belive they were rated at 2000W . as for the toilet it in was in the nose with the main blower and it was a drop to the rails flush type. but it was filthy and cold in the winter and hot in the summer. the crews stopped using them in the 60's. the steam heater boilers/generators were kept on low unless assigned to frieghts.especially in cold weather.
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