All fooling aside, Sandy pretty much hit the nail squarely on the head-- if one was truly committed (yes, in both senses of the word!) to seeing a G run again, it could happen for something less than a million or so. The frame cracking was not a railfan rumor-- I have closeups of the freshly-repair-welded frame of 4877 at South Amboy the day before the retirement runs, taken just a few minutes before the frame and running gear got a fresh coat of all-concealing black,

It is not uncommon for cast steel passenger car truck frames to need crack repair as they are undergoing Amtrak-style 40-year rebuilds; the cracks are carefully arc-gouged out and then carefully welded, ground and normalized. Steve Z. could speak with much more authority on this subject.

And I seem to recall Linn mentioning the 6+ frame cracks in 475's frame when Strasburg started on her.

We can't make those big steel castings like General Steel Castings made years ago, but the welding technology has certainly improved sine the old days.

I doubt it will ever happen, but I'd sure love to hear one of those big black beetles getting under way again-- the sound of the quill drives engaging the drivers, and sound of the popping relays as the throttle was notched up, with an overall accompanyment of blowers.

Howard P.

There is NOTHING like a GG1-- NOTHING!!!

The PCB issue is a bunch of hooey.

If you consider NYC alone, there are probably several thousand good sized step-down transformers buried in the bowels of the cities building stock. I don't recall any crash program to remove them.

The solution was simple: remove the old pcb-based oil and repeatedly flush the x-formers with an inert-silcone based oil until a certain trace threshold was reached.

The way the railroads reacted to this stuff was just typical risk averse, big corporation bushwa.

Perhaps more telling is the absense of any class-action suits by the legions of railroad guys that worked around pcb's. In comparison, consider the fact that Armour-Dial (as the corporate succesor)was the subject of a lawsuit by former BLW employees based upon their exposure to asbestos.

Dave

If memory serves me, the transformer on the current ABB/BBD high speed electrics is outside the locomotive, underneath the floor.

Well I guess I got everyone beat on the off beat cars.
I have a YUGO !!!!!
Nuff said LOL
Andrew

For the record, I share the cynical skepticism about the hazards of PCBs being likely very overblown, unless you work with the stuff daily for years (ditto asbestos). But wishful thinking won't answer a state or federal environmental agency that will make demands--reasonable or no--upon a restored-to-operation ex-PCB engine.

To that end, I will reiterate my supposed information that only two GG1's got out of Wilmington with transformers intact: 4800 and PRR 4917/Amtrak 4934 (Wilmington & Western, then to Leatherstocking NRHS). Does anyone else kinow for sure if other G's have intact transformers?

So if there are GG1s with transformers, now what we need is a nice restored EMD model M16 power generating boxcar, and another boxcar with a big motor generator set inside? And maybe a GG1 on each end of the pair of boxcars so you can operate in either direction without a wye?

I think it could use a real diesel electric helper too. how about building a replica of a DL-109?

Or better yet, a pair of DL-109's.

"Or better yet, a pair of DL-109's."

At this rate, including the Smithsonian's PA, it looks like GSC or Rockwell-LFM will have to start casting up 3-axle A-1-A passenger trucks again!!

The DL-109 looks so retro, it almost could have come off Vergara's drawing board. Oh, right, no more drawing boards.... his CAD program?

Folks,

I just uploaded a page to my website of 3-day old pictures of GG1 4879.

Hmmm, if I just had this page up before April 1.

From an internal inspection it appears that all of the electrical items are still in there. However she is in rough shape.

Click on any of the photos for a larger image.

Howard P. - there is a photo there for you of that fantastic quill. In the one photo you can see all the welds on the truck frames, to many to count.

Scott

http://www.prrllc.com/GG1.html

Dear Scott,

I was wondering if you made any other photos of the equipment in the vicinity of the 4879 that you could share? Recent photos of stored URHS equipment is hard to come by.

Many thanks,
Tom Cornillie

http://www.startrakinc.com/gg1_4877.htm

While focusing on the 4877 (Big Red) this link has some information on the 4879 and its planned restoration.

Tom Cornillie