For more than two decades, the Pennsylvania Railroad experimented with locomotive designs in search of a passenger electric for high-speed mainline service. That search ended in 1934 with the GG1, a cooperative effort by the PRR, Baldwin, Westinghouse, and General Electric, based largely on neighbor New Haven's successful EP3 juice jack. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy cleaned up the original riveted body to create a design that looked contemporary for half a century.
The GG1 fleet hustled passenger traffic of all types along the Pennsy's multi-track raceway from New York to Washington and west to Harrisburg, including the famed Congressional and Broadway Limited. With 18 Pullmans in tow, a GG1 could hit 100 mph. Regeared for freight service and run as double-headers, a pair of GG1s could provide about the same tractive effort as a Union Pacific Big Boy, with virtually no noise, no smoke, much less wear on the track, and significantly less maintenance. Many GG1s racked up more than five million miles of service, outlasting the railroad that built them and serving its two successors, the Penn Central and Conrail. If there were a Locomotive Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 would surely be one of the first inductees.
Add this fully die-cast Hall of Famer to your layout as a complete set or in one or more authentic PRR liveries, featuring station sounds for Pennsy name trains, smooth performance at any speed from a crawl to full throttle, and dual-motored power to rival the prototype.
