3 words: steam turbine electric

dave

Great idea! After all, the GG-1's already have an oil-fired boiler. All we need now is the turbine.

As I understand it, right now CSS&SB 803 has some noticeable air leaks in the hard-to-access piping mounted to the underside of the carbody. It's far from impossible to repair, but until the leaks are fixed the locomotive can't run and the factors already described means this project is very low on the priority list.

That GG-1 metamorphis link is much akin to the the Ersatz Brothers SW-1/3 et al that was going around a year or so ago. Lots of creativity-

guys,

The Illinois Has not been mentioned . They have a private 5 mile line and lots of 600 volt power.

I am no kind of Electrical Engineer. But could the correct 600 volt motors be placed in a box car and MUed to the GG!?

Then [b]all[/b] you would have to worry about is the brake system and some very tired old trucks.

I agree with others that there is not any chance of running one in the Northeast Corridor. I rode the New Haven to Boston portion for the first time last year and it is a great trip!

I only rode the New Haven once behind a GG1 in 1969. But used to see them all the time in the Sunnyside Yard of the LIRR. And I have a working model of one at home.

Ted Miles[/b]

Ken, for what it's worth, I understood the question and agree it wasn't a stupid question if you didn't know the condition of the current GG-1s. I for one know next to nothing about them. All I know is there are a few around, many of them close to charged overhead lines. Heck, I looked in here originally as I too was wondering if it was possible. I don't think at all this is one of those, "Why can't they build a NYC Hudson and run it" threads at all!
Look at it this way, would ANYONE here have bet on Doyle getting his hands on a PA and bringing it back to life in the US ten years ago? Sure, here's no quite there yet, but who'd have thought that was possible a decade ago?
Don't dog pile on a guy for asking what I feel is a decent question to ask. Self-appointed people who squash legitimate wondering might be the primary reason for some projects never get going anywhere. From what I've seen in the preservation field, most of the really impressive work gets done by folks who ignore the nay-sayers!

With appropriate respect, I'm not one of the folks insulting you.

The problem is that this question, like many others (see "will UP run a Big Boy?", "why did NS stop the steam program?", "where is [insert steam locomotive]?", etc.), keeps coming back to haunt us like the proverbial bad penny or the cat you keep trying to dispose of. It's why I've lobbied for a "FAQ" section to head off this forum, inasmuch as I'm getting bloody tired of the "Welcome to..." and "Registering for...." ones stuck at the top.

And a particular few questions/ideas--and this question in particular may be one of them--have, over the course of time, become so overwhelmingly persistent in their ability to not only infect impressionable/idealistic enthusiasts, but render them oblivious to the realities of the situations, that the proper approach perhaps more closely approaches exorcism than just refutation or denial. At least with the end of the NS steam excursion program, we were finally spared the perpetual "why don't they get SR 1401 out of the Smithsonian and run her?" query.

Thus, many of us truly do appear to be taking otherwise innocuous questions out back behind the coaling shed and beating them with stout sticks, coupling pins, and shovels until they're bereft of life. But yet again, come another month or year, some innocent railfan has a bright idea and innocently asks "Why don't they put GG1 4876 on display at the end of that track in Washington Union Station?" or something similar........... and the groans echo throughout RyPN Land........

If Step #1 can be arranged, I will cheerfully volunteer for Step #2. Although I'm probably more curmudgeon than "innocent"....

Howard P.
Fantasyland, CT

That cute redhead from Mythbusters has a name- it's Kari Byron. Not only does she enjoy blowing stuff up with Jamie and Adam, but she's an accomplished sculptor and artist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Byron

Actually, I can answer that one. As the primary instigator of bringing that G to the Washington area, we were looking for a place to display it, and of course the bumper of track 16 at WUS was mentioned. So, I called Cliff Black and asked him about the possibility. Mr. Black was very diplomatic (as you would expect Amtrak's PR flak to be - and I also had known him before), but having the locomotive responsible for a spectacular wreck at that location on permanent display, even though pre-Amtrak, just wouldn't be good PR. I think there would be every possibility, if we could ever get a really good cosmetic restoration done to it, that it would be welcome as a temporary display there (my fantasy would be displaying it with a small train of Mr. Levin's PRR cars). My original goal was having it done for the 100th anniversary of Union Station last year, but well...

I woulda gone for the basement myself, but that's how I am :)

So what's the story on 4876? At first glance, it would appear to be located in Vandalville. Is the unit secure? Not too picked over?
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.26896 ... &t=h&hl=en

Good lord, I better reply to this one before it turns into another "you guys at the B&O need to restore the GG1 and ignore all those unique 19th century steam locos that were crushed in the roof collapse." The 4876 is currently stored on our "north main" next to the restoration shop platform. We plan to try to keep it inside a fence as much as possible. There isn't much to work with as far as restoration, she's pretty heavily infested with rust.

As far as restoration.....there's a lot of VERY UNIQUE and MUCH MORE HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT engines that are still awaiting the time and money to restore them to the state that they were in on the morning of 2/16/03.

Probably should give an explanation for the satellite photo link for those not familiar with Baltimore. What you're looking at is Mt. Clare "A-Yard", the only part of the original Mt. Clare facility still used by CSX. The interstate crossing over it is I-95. At the top where the running tracks come together is the first railroad bridge in the U. S. (and also the Americas), The Carrollton Viaduct (named for Charles Carroll of Baltimore, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a founding director of the B&O - who also laid the first stone for the RR), which crosses Gwens(sp?) Falls and the Hanover sub (former WM main). The B&O Museum lead comes off the running track just past the viaduct (requisite preservation content).

From L-R, the tracks are: 3 Runner, #1 Mt. Clare through #6 Mt. Clare, and 4 Runner. The building near the North end of the yard is the yard office/crew room for road crews working out of Baltimore. The facility was previously a "BIDS" bulk commodity transfer facility before CSX turned Riverside engine terminal over to MARC something like 10 years ago. The Baltimore Terminal Train Masters are in, and in-charge of Mt. Clare. However, the yard and running tracks are controlled by the yardmaster at Locust Point yard (at the S. end of the Ft. McHenry harbor tunnels). The construction trailer is for RR taxi company PTI. That trailer was removed and another put in further down the parking lot, closer to I-95.

The track coming off 3 Runner crosses Bernard St. under I-95, serves some customers on it's way past Wilkins Av., and connects with the Amtrak NEC near the W. Baltimore MARC station. It's not currently used that far, but does form a wye at the connection. There are plans to make this a connection for MARC equipment to access a new service facility to be built at the location of the old B&O intermodal facility on Wicomico St. (which would mean electrifying the railroad over the Carrollton Viaduct!).

Hopefully, I'm not guilty of too much information.

Gentlemen:

I have just finished deleting about eight posts posted by three regulars on this board, which had degenerated into a diatribe about who's comments were more stupid than the others.

Rather than adding more fuel to the fire by interjecting my own opinions, I am locking this thread on a high note, Paul Woodring's detailed description of CSX's Baltimore Terminal operations.