The Last Run of the GG-1 | October 29, 1983
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Old home video footage from "The Last Run of GG1" farewell event sponsored and organized by NJ Transit. The October 29, 1983 event marked the last time the famous Pennsylvania RR GG-1s ran for the public. The last 3 active motors pulled excursion trains that day between Matawan and Newark and were subsequently retired at the end of the day. This video has never seen before amateur footage taken during the day's events in Matawan, Perth Amboy and the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge.
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I rode in the cab of the very last run of a GG1 locomotive on October 29, 1983. A thrilling experience that I will never forget. It was in service for N. J. Transit. We hit 90 mph. It was surprisingly loud inside for an electric locomotive.
What happened the rolling stock that the GG1 was pulling after the final run ?
If you remember the date riding in the gg1 for it's last ever run, on Saturday October 29, 1983, here are some songs that were big then that may help bring back those memories. "Delirious" by Prince, Making love out of nothing at all by Air Supply, If anyone falls by Stevie Nicks, The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats, Big Log by Robert Plant, Foolin' by Def Leppard, Dr. Hecyll & Mr. Jive by Men at Work. Also that week, McDonna debuted on the charts for the very first time with Holiday, which led to her successful songs from then throughout the rest of the 80's and 90's, including 12 #1 hits.
you get pics?
@@alexander1485 I got photos of me in the cab. And I have a photo of me standing outside of the locomotive. I shot a photo of the speedometer reading 90mph, but I can't find that one.
@@johnoconnor6356 Thanks, but I'm into classical music. I never even heard of those performers that you mentioned or what they were singing. I met Luciano Pavarotti at a concert and got his autograph back stage.
First train I ever rode ... As a young boy in the 1950s rode a GG1 from D.C. to NYC to visit grandma. The image of standing on the platform next to that huge locomotive is permanently ingrained in my mind. Its size was absolutely jaw-dropping.
Never found electric locomotives to be interesting..except the GG1 what a beautiful, powerful beast of a locomotive. The pinnacle of electric locomotive design in the U.S. as far as I'm concerned.
What a unique engine the GG1 was. One of my favorite engine designs ever. This is a bittersweet video for me. I was too little to have seen the GG1 except in a museum. Thank you for posting this video, because it brings to light an engine that only looked ‘cool’ to me, but never gave me an idea of how it ran, what the horn sounded like, and whether it was a smooth engine when it rolled across the rails.
On a side note, that car set on the NJ Transit line is sharp looking. The aluminum can color we get now on NJT is just there. Like the navy blue much more.
It is good to see at least one video from 1983. That was a special time in my life. While I was not in attendance of this event, I do remember things in this particular day. This date fell on a Saturday that year, and it was a cool crisp autumn day. This was coming off a very hot summer in Philadelphia. There are a few songs I remember from then, which bring back memories from then, which I am sure would bring back memories for those of you who attended the above event. The #1 song from that day was Islands in the stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, which hit the top that week, and stay there for 2 weeks. This song knocked Bonnie Tyler's Total eclipse of the sun from the top, after that song was #1 for the previous 4 weeks. #3 was All night long by Lionel Richie, which would knock KR and DP out if #1. #4 was True by Spanish Ballet. #5 was One thing leads to another by The Fixx. Other songs I remember were King of Pain by the Police at #7. Their previous hit I'll be Watching You, which would end up being the #1 hit for 1983, would drop from #55 the previous week to #92 this week, for it's final week in the hot 100. This day being a cool crisp day, just seven weeks prior, on September 10, the temperature in Philadelphia hit 97 degrees, setting a new record for that date, which still stands. Just 100 days prior to this crisp autumn day, was the Diana Ross concert in Central Park in NY, which was cut short by massive thunderstorms, which also broke a heat wave that had been gripping the area for over a week. At #14 on the charts for October 29, 1983 was Come on Feel the Noise by Quiet Riot. The lead singer of QR, the late Kevin DuBrow, celebrated his 28th birthday on this date. The #11 song was Say Say Say by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, which would knock Lionel Richie out I'll f #1 to become the final #1 song in 1983, and remain #1 into 1984. At #12 thus week was Suddenly it"s Summer by the Motels.
GG1 engineer Cliff Underwood, who was involved with the last-day runs, wrote a song "Old Big Red" about 4877, which was recorded for this movie. Part 1 of 4: ruclips.net/video/tC6W0XEqOLw/видео.html
Great looking locomotive, so much better than we have today
Raymond Loewy designed this decades ago! Beautiful design still, I wonder why it was retired, it still seems to pull just fine!
They were pretty beat for the most part. One issue was the massive cast iron trucks were beginning to stress crack after years of use. You can see the attempted weld repairs and cracks on pretty much any GG1 in museums. I'm sure there were other issues also. They had already been rebuilt and repaired over and over by this point and probably more modern designs offered more crew comfort and efficiency. Better visibility from the cab ect.
Actually, Lowey refined the design. The basic lines were an improvement on the PRR's P-5a(Modified) lines, correcting the problems with that redesign from box cab to center cab after a nasty accident between a P-5a and a @talled cement truck.
When EVERYTHING starts to wear out at once - repairing it stops being reasonable. But I agree, the GG1 looks great and was a great locomotive. Problem is - allot of USA railroads that used to be electrified back in the day - have been stripped of electrical power line.
COOL! Back when many passenger trains were still steam heated (non HEP) trains. You can see the steam traps on the ends of the cars and there's no HEP receptacles either. Love those Pullman built smooth sided passenger cars. By his date, Amtrak was already an all HEP railroad, as their last steam heated train was the Silver Star / Silver Meteor. This train made it's final departure from New York Penn Station as a steam heated train in May of 1982, to Florida and had a GG1 Electric Locomotive pull it to Washington DC, Union Station. (The Southern most part of the Northeast Corridor Line) From there, EMD SDP40F locomotives likely pulled the train into Florida.
Here in new Zealand way down in Christchurch back in the early 70's we said goodbye to our electric locomotives on the Christchurch to Lyttleton suburban trains. These electric locomotives were built specifically for the line to the port,for both freight and passenger trains.the Ec class were built by English Electric in the 1920's to replace steam on the port run.only one was saved and can be seen under its own power once in a while.along with the other electric lico used on the Arthur's pass section through to otira on the trans alpine route from Christchurch to Greymouth. Plus there are a couple of ex Wellington EMU sets along with the electric locomotives that replaced the original Eo class locos these replacement units were built by Toshiba engineering of Japan,and these locos were phased out when the railways became a corporation in the 90's. The Toshiba locos were eventually used on Wellington suburban trains due to a shortage of suburban EMUs
That Horn sounds Amazing!
My son and I were back in the train, that day. We framed the poster, invitation, and tickets, and seat checks. It doesn't seem like 40 years.
This is the footage without old film noise & static
I lived in NJ 1982-84 and I was on that train. Wonderful memories. I still have the poster, framed, on my bedroom wall.
I used to see the GG1's at South Amboy - they were in poor condition - frames cracked and welded repairs. And I saw the original "Rivets" at the Pennsylvania RR Museum.
Outstanding footage 👍
R.I.P. PRR GG1
"honey why are you crying so damn loud"
There is one or two of these on an overgrown siding in Cooperstown Junction, NY - just North of Oneonta (Big D&H town back in the day), along route 7 just past the turnoff to go to Cooperstown.
Great footage. Glad you posted this!
great stuff you have. keep-em coming
These machines were one of the main ones that I looked at that never made it difficult for them to carry everything they could pull, I had to look at the impressive Milwaukee ones
And a history of the GG1 rode before us not really knowing. what to say other than hi and a huge part of PRR history went before out eyes sadly
Amtrak GG-1s ran until 1986 ? in rush hour service pulling the old heavy weight cars . Nice engine . I rode this train regularly out of
Penn Station New York . Definitely not 1981or 1983 , although these dates may have been the last regular service dates.
I work in Annandale NJ and saw the 4877 sitting on a short siding at the Annandale station for awhile before it was moved to Lebanon NJ. I saw what looked like a GG1 but didn't believe it, wasn't a reason for a GG1 to be that far up a now dead end line. So I didn't walk down to look at it. Turns out it was the 4877 and I found out later after it had left Lebanon.
40 year anniversary in 6 days
Very nice information and video, however the wide screen video was not out until the 1990's so having this as a wide screen video stretches the thing to wide and and to low....
on paper if someone could restore a GG1 it could still run on some parts of the NEC, Afaik the current owner Amtrak has not changed the electricity any and the overheads are still using the same voltage and frequency. I cant remember if NYC through NJ to DC is 25hz or 60hz
It's a crying shame they ever took these things off the rails. I still don't understand why one of the remaining examples couldn't be refurbished with modern components.
Is that locomotive like from 1940's ? It looks wonderful! The time when locomotive design had its charm and style. Not the modern angular stuff.
1934-1943 is what wikipedia has for the production run of the GG-1.
40 years ago next week
Makes you wonder if someone could restore one to operate on today’s lines.
In theory, you COULD but it would be expensive as hell. The transmissions would all need to be completely rebuilt, with a different system for cooling than originals, and I don’t think there’s anywhere it could run on modern electrical rail systems. Best to just slap a diesel behind
I wonder where 4877 is now? Awesome vid!
its in Boonton, NJ in preservation
@@cocorailfanning6331 I would love to see one running under it's own power someday.
@@johnknippenberg-LandmarkYardsThe main reason why they aren't is because their transformers which were removed, contained PCBs.
Please upload this and stick with the original aspect ratio of 4:3. there is a HUGE discrepancy especially in the model train hobby about the size and shape of these engines, that is made even worse by a stretched wide video of a 1983 when wide screen was not a thing for video recording except maybe in a movie theater. The view at 1:35, 2:00, and 3:28 make this more obvious as well as I have a copy of the same engine and in the right aspect ratio it is not pixelated on the screen.
I was 15 y/o
Video in 1983? What type of camera was this?