RAILBASTARD

I contribute occasionally to a couple of US 'N gauge' forums (under a different persona) both of which have a weekly proto-photo thread. This week I put up a few images I took in the US back in 1981 so thought I might as well share them here as well...

I have only visited the US on one occasion and unfortunately in those days most of my photographic efforts were directed at steam and I was quite snobbish about modern traction.

In fact I took less than a dozen slides of trains on my travels in the US.

While staying with a friend in New York in late July 1981, I did have the good sense to head out to Newark one afternoon and despite the gloomy weather snapped a trio of half decent images.

Kato have announced they will be releasing an N gauge model of the classic GG1 electrics later this year so in honour of that announcement:







Stick that one up your arse!, Bing

They're brilliant.

I don't know a lot about US rail, but I do loves me some GGs. Classic, stylish locos..

What he said...and I adore the coaches in that third photo!

Yum yum!

I must admit that I'm more inclined to steam locos too. The GG1 counts as being of interest, but the smelly diesel... (GP7/9?) ...naahhh. 'Cept it hasn't got dyno blisters.

You do not need the dynamic brake if you do not haul freight and your line is not hilly, the passenger trains would be a lot lighter than most American Freights, also most loco builders gave you the option of having or not a dynamic brake, some lines did not need them and so it was an item that could be dipensed with to make the loco cheaper to buy!

Nice shots Bing.

Out of ignorance, what wheel arrangement do they call that on the GG? Is it 4-6-6-4 or 4-C-C-4, or what is it? Nice looking loco whatever. More style than the Brit's who made the 46 class.

I love those carriages with clerestory roof. Were they in regular service in 1981 or was it a special?

Not sure what the yanks would call it, but in my books it's a 2-C-C-2 or 2-Co-Co-2.

It was a regular service operated by New Jersey Transit. I'm still trying to track down more info form the US on the history behind the carriages.

Bing

I'd call it a 2-Co+Co-2, I think (driving bogies are centre-coupled, are they not? Or are they even bogies?) I'm not sure how the AAR notation handles stuff like that, but according to Wikipedia, the GG1s are 2-C+C-2 under that scheme, but the railroads themselves used Whyte notation: 4-6-0+0-6-4 as it was apparently an articulated loco of sorts!

Wikipedia article is here. Well worth a read too. Incredible machines.

Love that loco in that first shot! How many of 'em are still around I wonder?

For some reason, those passenger cars in the 3rd photo look a bit like Victorian BE/BWs in a way, to me

There are plenty preserved, but none in regular service - I think they finished up in 1983, a couple of years after these pics were taken.

Bing

America's odd in that way - they have quite a deal of stuff lying about but it's a rare day anybody ever does anything to it...

Two reasons GG1s don't run:

1) The old girls run on 11000VAC @ 25 Hz. Some of this overhead may now be 60 Hz so running the old girls may be a bit exciting at the higher frequency.

2) Upon withdrawl, the transformers were drained and filled with either sand or cement due to PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination.

Todays mystery: what became of the GG1 that went to England?

OK, I'll bite...I was unaware of any GG1 ever making it to the UK, unless it was for the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Bing

OK I've done a bit more reesarch into the mystery pic of the GP7 and coaches at Newark

The GP7 is ex Central of New Jersey 1523 and in fact still exists!
Builder's Number: 17101
Built: November 1952

History: CNJ primarily utilized the GP7 fleet in passenger service between Jersey City and Bay Head, between Jersey City and Raritan, and between Matawan and Atlantic Highlands before delivery of the Budd built Rail Diesel Cars for that latter service. This GP7 became Conrail No. 5681 upon the CNJ inclusion in Conrail in 1976, but in December 1976, it was acquired by the NJDOT. 5681 was donated to URHS of NJ by NJ Transit in 1997. It was subsequently leased to the BR&W in return for storage space and was repainted to its original CNJ paint scheme and number in 1998. In 2004 it was leased to Cape May Seashore Lines to be maintained and used from time to time.

http://www.urhs.org/roster.html#cnj1523

The coaches would appear to date from around 1925 and again are probably ex Centraof New Jersey although some may have come from the other commuter roads that went into making up NJDOT

Builder: Bethlehem Steel Company
Built: 1925

History: This car was built for service on the Blue Comet passenger trains. The Blue Comet was a deluxe all coach train that ran from Jersey City to Atlantic City.. The 1173 was originally named the D'Arrest after one of the astrological comets. The Blue Comet was discontinued in 9/41 due to low ridership. After the train's discontinuance, the coaches were utilized in commuter service. The 1173 was renamed the Beachcomber and was predominantly used on the North Jersey Coast Line, but saw service on the ex-CNJ Raritan Valley Line. It will be returned to the Blue Comet livery and will be operated.
Go to Index

http://www.urhs.org/roster.html#cnj1173

All I need now is find out where the bloody thing was going.

Bing

The more I look into this, I'm starting to wonder if was real or not, supposedly it had the road number 80929.

Two sources are:

http://www.auran.com/trainz/database/gg1m.html

http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?s=cabe56cf4ad30acdd1a7d0551b2394f7&showtopic=1966

If this was fair dinkum, how did the old girl get its power? Wasn't England mostly 1500 VDC then onto 25kVAC 50Hz?

(Maybe I should of written "What became of the GG1 that supposedly went to England?" as I'm gunna look like a goose if this is not the case)

I'm thinking that's a good idea...

I would be willing to bet your lefty that what you're looking at is a fictitious history for the purpose of a Trainz loco skin... GG1 929 did exist (see HERE), but it's simply shown as "scrapped". Any journey to the Old Dart would have surely made for a substantial footnote.
Don't feel too bad. The whole idea of these ficticious histories is for them to sound as realistic as possible. The fact that you thought it was real is probably the best compliment you could pay to the author.