The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 Electric Locomotive: A Retrospective

This paper is a historical review of the design and operation of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s class GG1 electric locomotive over its heavily-trafficked New York City-Washington, DC main line during the period 1934–1983. The locomotive was designed in-house by the railroad in corroboration with Baldwin Locomotive, General Electric and Westinghouse Electric following competitive tests of several electric locomotive designs. Its outstanding performance and long operating life has resulted in it being generally considered the most highly regarded electric locomotive in North America. The Pennsylvania Railroad embarked in the late 1920’s on a major AC electrification program for its New York-Washington and Philadelphia-Harrisburg main lines and local branches. It initially planned to use a fleet of class P5 rigid frame 2-C-2 electric locomotives for service. However problems were quickly encountered with damaging lateral track impacts, axle cracks, truck hunting, and inadequate tractive effort. The railroad responded with a series of competitive evaluation tests of several locomotive designs including a recent New York, New Haven & Hartford (NYNH&H) Railroad articulated frame locomotive, using an ingenious method to measure truck lateral forces. As a result, the railroad developed two prototype electric locomotive designs, a rigid frame class R1 2-D-2 and an articulated frame class GG1 2-C+C-2. Follow-up track testing verified that the GG1 had lower track lateral forces, and was selected for production. The 4,620 hp GG1 combined several significant North American design concepts: - Exceptional power from six double-armature traction motors for heavy passenger train operation at 100 mph; - Double-ended body design to eliminate the need to turn locomotives; - Use of separate truck frames with an articulation joint connection, allowing improved rail tracking and lower lateral forces; - Housing the main transformer and locomotive cabs in the center body, providing increased crew accident protection in collisions; - Use of high voltage Alternating Current (11 kV at 25 Hz); and - One of the first applications of Industrial Design (by Donald R. Dohner and Raymond F. Loewy) producing a streamlined locomotive using a welded carbody. The GG1 was quickly recognized as a rare combination of stellar performance, robust construction, and low maintenance costs. It was used to inaugurate electrified New York-Washington operations, performed admirably during World War II, successfully made the later transition to freight train operation, and was finally retired in October 1983. The prototype GG1 locomotive 4800 has been designated an ASME national engineering landmark.

The Creation of Cab Signaling

Cab signaling enforces the separation between trains as well as enforcing trains to reduce speed as the train approaches signals displaying STOP. Cab signaling allow for and provides a safe way to eliminate the number of wayside automatic signals while the number of controlled speeds can be increased. Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems today are built completely with cab signaling and only fixed wayside signals are placed at interlockings for routing information. Experimental cab signaling systems began in the United States in the 1920s, kicked off by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ruling that required some form of Automatic Train Control (ATC) be installed on one passenger division by 1925. This paper will begin with examining the initial ATC designs (intermediate and continuous), the first experimental installations, the testing challenges and the overall enhancements that pioneered cab signaling systems in the US. The focus will include the teaming of the Pennsylvania Railroad with Union Switch and Signal (US&S) to develop, build and successfully test the continuous cab signaling system which later became the de facto standard. The early systems implemented used two (2) speeds, methods on adding a third speed and how the system became integrated with the existing automatic block signaling. How Pennsylvania Railroad (currently Amtrak) is still using the technology that started 100 years ago on the North East Corridor. It will also introduce how Light Rail systems operate on speed commands using cab codes.

The Life and Death of North American Rail Freight Electrification

Although completely dieselized today aside from certain commuter and intercity passenger routes, U.S. railroads were world leaders in electrification in the early 20th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Milwaukee Road had the most extensive electrifications, but several other railroads electrified largely for freight service. This paper explores the decisions to electrify freight railroads in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (largely for short tunnels where steam locomotives were not practicable, mountain grades, and busy traffic districts), and why electrifications were discontinued (underpowered installations, aging electric infrastructure, and changes in ownership that made electrification geographically obsolete). Energy shortfalls and price spikes since the 1970s have provoked interest in electrification from freight railroads, but this interest has subsided whenever fuel prices decline. Although it is possible that environmental considerations may lead to electrification in some contexts, as long as fossil fuel prices remain low, electrification is unlikely to play a major role on North American railroads.

The Great Sidetrack War: In Which Downtown Merchants and thePhiladelphia North AmericanDefeat the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1903–1904

On November 21, 1903, the Pennsylvania Railroad announced that its north-south through trains would no longer enter Broad Street Station in downtown Philadelphia and would stop instead at West Philadelphia. Nor would the company sell tickets from that station to downtown. These schedule changes, which seemed minor to the company and were intended to reduce congestion in the central city, threatened downtown merchants and manufacturers who worried that buyers would shift to more accessible cities. Philadelphia had been sidetracked, theNorth Americanreported. The result was an eruption of boycotts, protests, and petitions that pitted nearly every local trade association against the railroad. Encouraged by theNorth American's editorials, partisan reporting, and stinging cartoons, the protesters forced the Pennsylvania to back down, and in March 1904, through trains returned to Broad Street. The newspaper cloaked this local business dispute in the language of antimonopoly, linking the fears of small businessmen to national anti-railroad concerns. The sidetrack episode also helped launch modern corporate public relations, as the Pennsylvania—stung by this threat to corporate autonomy—soon hired Ivy Lee as its first publicity agent.