Or how about "opening up" one side of a GG1 that might be in need of some side panel work anyway, to create a display that is different from the other how-many that are out there in captivity. There is nothing in doing this that would prevent its being restored to the original appearance later, as EMD demonstrated numerous times with their visible E-units and F-units.

PC

I would be thrilled if this happened. I am quite confident that no mainline heavy electric will ever run again in a museum setting (too few people championing the cause), no matter how much I say it could be done - I have basically stated this in another, earlier thread. I do have a sliver of hope that maybe eventually some of the heavy electrics will get proper internal restorations at some point in the future. I mean more than just a leaning and paint job - I mean a technical restoration that respects the historic fabric of the electrical gear (that is what makes an electric locomotive special, right?).

Of all the heavy electrics I have been in, only a couple look like someone cared under the covers. Most look like a bomb went off inside, regardless of how nice the locomotives look from the outside.

--
Will

If you're talking locomotives only, I'd say it's likely to happen at IRM. The museum's South Shore Line 803 (known on the Milwaukee as a "Little Joe") is close to operational and recent - and ongoing - upgrades to the museum's overhead wire will soon make it possible to operate this locomotive. If you include MU cars in the heavy electric category then you just missed the first operation of mainline electrification equipment at IRM in about 10 years - the museum's Illinois Central MU cars ran on Saturday.

http://www.irm.org/gallery/album170/acr

Dear God, I hope not! I've never seen so much mis-information on an RyPN thread.

No offense folks, but like Will (toober) is saying above, there are too few people with expertise and interest in this area. What I see here looks plainly like "best guesses" from people whose core expertise lies elsewhere.

It's a classic problem. If you care about <X>, where do you go for an education in <X> when there are so few people in the field?

Recruit and learn from <Y>?

--
Will

There are still people out there with expertise relevant to the GG1, the problem is that most of the people with that kind of experience have retired now, and left the railroad industry without any subsequent contact with the preservation community.

This of course is getting very close to an ALCO discussion we had some time ago, about how the passing of their engineering and technical people was largely unnoticed by the railroad historical and preservation organizations.

PC

On the subject of the GG-1, I just read an interesting article in the May 1952 Popular Science, which is up on http://books.google.com/ ... get straight to the article with this link.

The article talked about two contenders to replace the GG1, on an AC locomotive and the other a rectifier DC. There was a comment: "Back in 1934", which was only 18 years prior, "GE and Westinghouse stacked the cards against themselves. ... the GG-1. ... Got a fleet of 139 of the mighty G's right now. Believe me, one of these new babies has got to be pretty good to make us change our minds."

I just checked the IRM Traction Weekend photo gallery--all 75 photos! It looked like "dreams come true" for electric railway enthusiasts, with many cars I thought I'd never see running again. What sort of power supply do they have? The substation must have really been humming. Gotta get back there one of these years!

Let this thread die....

On the surface, I agree with you. However, if you would like this thread to die, it can die to you simply by not going to it anylonger! Others seem interested in still talking through things, even if many have been said many times before. To each his own.

There is a 34KV line from ComEd that goes to a transformer bank to bring it down 4160V which that feeds most of the property and both traction subs. Another transformer bank goes from 4160 to 480 which feeds the first traction sub, which is made originally from EMD parts, although now it only retains the rectifiers from an AR10. The second sub is one of the ones we got years ago from pfizer way up north, it only retains its transformers and rectifiers as all the controls are new. I think both are rated at something like 2500A each. Just a few years ago all the controls were replaced with modern DC traction sub controls, here are a few pics during that upgrade.

http://www.irm.org/gallery/subexpansion

Right now the railroad is setup to have the main property, car line and everything west of the substation on one sub and everything east of the substation on the second sub. There is a bunch of switchgear that allows different sections of the railroad to run on either sub.

There are plans for a 3rd sub to be installed towards Seeman Road that would handle everything east of that location, but that is probably 5 years off at this point.

Thanks,
Jamie

Lots of people have different opinions on the same topic.

If I could afford it, I'd love to be able to purchase a GG1 and convert it to basically a cab/power car car with an option for using the pans or MUing to an unpowered F or E B unit. From the engineering end, it would be a fascinating project.

Oh well, I'd love to win the lottery anyway <grin>

Doug vV

I remember walking around inside the 4913 at Altoona years ago. There were steps up into the cab and it was open for visitors. Are you saying that 4913 is no longer accessible?