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February 19th 04, 04:39 PM

(N2EY) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

"Phil Kane" wrote in message

The ultimate class is the GG-1. Someday one will run again.....

There are others in museums but those are the best known.

16 of 'em are still out there.

Meaning in museums. Which is good, because they're being taken care of.

No they're not all in museums and no they are not all "being taken
care of" either.

Further proof of my contention that they never oughta let you damned
sparkies anywhere near the railroads.

Without us there'd be no Penn Station, no Grand Central, no subway, no Hudson
Tubes...

Steamers ran coast to coast for years before there were any of those.

WLW ran 500,000 kVA *OUT*. Plus it had 250,000 kVA worth of modulation
xfmrs.

No it didn't.

WLW ran 500 kW - 500,000 WATTS, not kilowatts.

Rats: Caught again . . !

It ain't the railroads which run the museum pieces, it's the museums
which run 'em. Steamtown, etc.

All that's needed is one near some energized wire.

You're the sparky, volunteer.

ahh, to hear the "duck call" air horn go by at over 100 mph once again...

The call of the Ruptured Duck . . Ugliest sound to ever come off the
rails until the diesels trumped the GG-1.

The rumble/whine of a pair of SD-45s (each rated 3600 Hp with turbocharged 20
cylinder diesel) pulling an intermodal at 79 mph along the Water Level
Route....

That ain't real railroading, that's just more boring-as-hell unit
material handling a la the conveyor lines in the UPS depots.

When was the last time YOU heard a steam whistle played in PRR revenue
service like I did?

Couple years back when the Strasburg ran an excursion down the Main Line to
30th Street and back. Their two steamers are ex-Pennsy, they were in Pennsy
colors and on Pennsy track. Plus they were hauling revenue passengers.

A Strasburg fan trip ain't Pennsy steam revenue service, not even
close. I dunno how many operable steamers the Starsburg has today but
OK, if it's only two one of 'em ain't from the Pennsy, it's a
fat-boiler job from some other road. The Pennsy only ever had one of
those in modern times, the K29 Pacific which was scrapped decades ago.

REAL Pennsy revenue steam was K4s double-heading a long string thru
Norwood toward Darby at night when ya could see the fireboxes glowing
in the dark from Grandma McHale's front porch . . Had the B&O too with
all it's grade crosssings and ya could hear their steam whistles in
Aldan. Loudly when the wind was blowing in the right direction.

Thought so . .

When's the last time you were *inside* a GG-1 - not in a museum?

Wilmington shops. Twice. Once in a good-to-go unit and once in the
restored unit while the work was in progress.

Thought so...

That's part of yer problem . .

Still not as cool looking as the J-3 Hudsons on the Water Level Route,
scooping
water from the Tivoli pans at 100+ MPH. (Of course water scoops were perfected
by the PRR and copied by Vanderbilt's little collection of branch lines).

Ah, even the RDG Seashore Line used 'em . .

Or as ungodly powerful as a UP Big Boy or even a Niagara.

They'll do . . !

Another thing PRR pioneered was radio on the RRs, starting with the inductive
trainphone system *before* VHF FM radio was used on the rails...

I question whether that was actually "radio".

73 de Jim, N2EY

w3rv