Here's my GG1 story. In 1970, at the age of 11, I was a budding railfan. We flew on a United DC8 Detroit-Newark to visit my aunt and uncle, who lived in New Brunswick. It turns out that their home was only about 4-5 houses from the NEC. Every time I heard a train approaching, I ran out to get the locomotive road numbers. At the speeds that they ran, you didn't have much time. We took the train into NYC one day, but it was a Metroliner.
Well, if this thread is about GG1 memories I've only got one, and it goes like this:
In 1975 I was a Marine stationed in Quantico VA. I didn't have a car yet so I was taking the bus up north to visit some friends. As the bus passed the yards for Washington Union Station on an elevated section of highway I was able to look down into the yards and saw a locomotive staging area. It was full of what I now know were GG1's in Penn Central black.
"Wow!" I thought to myself, "Look at all those Art Deco diesels! I didn't think there were any around anymore!" Hey, I wasn't a railfan at the time, so what did I know? As far as I knew there were steam engines (all gone except for museums and tourist lines) and diesels, a locomotive was one or the other so electrics never entered my mind.
Anyway, that's my GG1 story. And I did admire the look of those G's! How could you NOT admire a locomotive that looked like it was popped out of a Jell-O mold?
I do not know if there is a Forum page dealing with the GG1 so here gos.
During the winter of 1944-45 when I was 4 years old we made 5 trips from Steubenville Ohio to Atlantic City by train. Gas rationing made travel by car impossible. My uncle was severely injured in WW2 and several of the hotels in Atlantic City were converted to military hospitals. We went on the PRR from Steubenville to Pittsburgh, to Philadelphia and finally on to Atlantic City. From Steubenville to Harrisburg the train was steam powered. Then to Philadelphia it was pulled by a GG1. I woke up when we were pulled by the GG1 and asked my father what happened to the whistle. Thanks to the war travel out of the five trips we managed to get a Pullman berth only once. You were lucky even to get a pillow. Those were the good days when you could go almost anywhere by train.
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