While these electrics are not "lost", they do need a home before they turn into a big pile of scrap. I am talking about the two NYC electrics in Glenmont owned by the M&H Chapter NRHS. They will be donated to another group, BUT getting them moved will be a costly affair.They are one of a kind units too.
No, the Alco Historical & Technical Society cannot take them...(we would love to have them however) We neither have the funds to move them or a place to put them right now. (We are working on getting a place)

Get 'em under cover first, then worry about running them. I have a strong feeling that electricity will be around for awhile yet. The two ex-NYC electrics will probably never run again. Just saved them, dammit!

Wasn't the reason for the 11 kV AC because the power was sent over long distances and it's more efficient to send high voltage AC in order to keep the available power (relatively) constant between substations?

How many substations served the NE Corridor?

If you were trying to run a heavy electric on a short tourist loop, 600 VDC should be "workable", but then you'd have to bypass the high voltage transformers inside the unit....Never mind.......

Seems that way to me. They used high voltage for 2 reasons: To reduce losses over long distances, which museums don't have... and to allow the power (wattage) required to let the engine do its "drag 70 coal cars" / "go 125 mph" thing, which museums don't do.

So the question is what does the locomotive do with the 11KV? promptly knock it down to something that more resembles 600VAC. So there's no reason to make 11kv when you can make 600V.

Next question is what does it do with the AC? They often do "DC-ful" things with it, i.e. run it through a universal motor, in which case no need to make AC.

Back around World War I, Pacific Electric acquired two cars from Visalia Electric, which had been designed to run on AC. PE got them to run on 600VDC, but not very well. According to Interurbans Special 36 they were mostly used on the LA to Santa Ana Line, which was close to a billiard table when it came to ruling grade. The steepest hill they were likely to encounter was the terminal ramp at the 6th & Main station. It wasn't long before PE found a new home for the cars: The AC powered Napa Valley line. So it may be possible to run a locomotive (or MU car) designed for AC power on DC, just don't expect sterling performance. It would also be prudent to check with a traction motor expert to be sure a particular type will run on AC or DC without damage.

We had a lot of fun a couple of years ago pondering the concept of a motor-gen set stuffed into the body of a GG1. But, in reality it would be a most probably solution to move around a loco the size of a G by itself. Those of you out there that have rotated over traction motor or moved a loco truck around the shop with a Lincoln buz box know what I mean.

Now one would have to do some math and trail and error experiments with such devices so get it to work but it would be the simplest way to get a big electric to move by itself, minus the centenary.

Disclaimer: If you don not know anything about electricity, STAY AWAY! DO NOT TOUCH! ECT. ECT.

BTW, my first 4 years with the power company I had the privilege to run one of 11kv, 25c motor gen sets for the NEC. Just for giggles, if you ran 60 cycles into a 25 cycle motor at the same voltage you will see lower current draws.

Scott Kwiatkowski
Dieselizing a GG1 as we speak, wink, wink
http://www.prrllc.com/GG1.html

i have been away on vacation; but I have now caught up with the comments here.

electric preservation in this country dates back to 1939 when Seasgore Trolley Museum was founded Then came the two Connecticut museums: Connecticut Electric Trolley Museum and the now Shoreline Trolley Museum. The centered on trolley rather than
main line electric because they knew trolley cars were on the way out, but main lines everybody expected to be around for a long time to come.

And in answer to the question about static displays, yes they do work for people. The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum has not one but two GGIs on display including the #48oo "Old Rivets" the prototype for the series. Along with other PRR electrics the museum must have more main line electric locos than anybody.

Out here in the West the number of electrics is not as good, but the Western Railway Museum has a Main Line (16 miles of it) 125 ton Kennecott Copper Locomotive
#407 from their operation at Brigham Canyon , Utah. They used 750 volts DC to haul 90 car trains of copper ore. I talk about her on my tours.

The museum also has two 65 ton steeple cabs from the Sacramento Northern. One runs and the other is being worked on. The Orange Empire Railway Museum has a sister locomotive. These can run on 600volts at the museums. The 1500 volt SN was the last electric freight in California until they quit in 1965.

There are static displays of western main line electric in Montana and at the Museum Of trnsportation in St Louis.

Some years ago the old Locomotive & Railway Preservation magazine ran a long article on the GG!s. There was a list of where they all are. Whould you believe there is one in Texas?

Ted Miles

Two GG1's, a DD1, a B1, an E44, an E60CP, a Silverliner....... did someone mention the Strasburg RR "going green" with hydroelectric power from the Susquehanna River dams?

Don't forget the set of Milwaukee Road boxcabs at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth:

http://66.116.202.72/Education/ElectricLoco.asp

They live inside with stairs for public walk through access.

an MP-54, a Metroliner...
The B & O Railroad Museum has a B & O electric switcher.

And a Little Joe.

Not at B&O Museum--that's been gone for ages. Went off to GE Land (North East, Pa. near Erie), as I recall.

No one was seriously collecting first generation diesel-electrics in this time frame either. Certainly one of the first organized efforts to save a representative collection of first generation diesels was IRM's "Dialing for Diesels" program, which didn't begin until the late 1970's. These late efforts were successful partly because many of the early diesels were still available from short lines and industrial operators, long after they were replaced on the Class 1's.

But with the electrics, there was no place for them to cascade down to once the Class 1's were done with them. So it was too late.

Peter Schmidt

As far as actually running a main line electric locomotive at a railway museum, my bet for the first one would be South Shore 803 at IRM. (It's just like a Milwaukee Road "Little Joe" but the South Shore didn't use that name.) Originally built to run at 3400v dc in Russia, it was converted to run at 1500v on the South Shore, and could run at IRM on 600v with changes to auxilliaries.

No, its not a GG-1. It is bigger, heavier, and more powerful than a GG-1. The top speed is lower, but that's not an issue in a Museum environment! In fact it did run itself around the yards soon after it arrived at IRM in 1981.

Is it worth getting it to run? Probably not, but sooner or later someone out there is going to put in the time and effort to make it happen.

Ah, but the far more interesting Kennecott electric is #700. It is the first hybrid vehicle. It contains a bank of batteries which allow it to operate a full workday away from the trolley wire.