File:Pennsylvania Railroad - 4800 electric locomotive (GG-1) 3 (27244840112).jpg

This is a GG-1 electric locomotive - it is powered by electricity received from overhead wires via pantographs (= folded down here). It was built in August 1934 by General Electric and Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was used as Pennsylvania Railroad # 4899, Pennsylvania Railroad # 4800, Penn Central Railroad # 4800, and Conrail # 4800. Its blue Conrail paintjob is now covered up and the unit is in the collection of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in the town of Strasburg.

Info. from rgusrail.com: "# 4800, a 2-C+C-2 type electric locomotive, was one of two prototypes ordered by the Pennsylvania Railroad for testing at Claymont, Delaware in 1934. Built by Baldwin and General Electric, it was originally numbered # 4899.

The design was classed GG1 by the Pennsylvania Railroad because the wheel arrangement was the same as two Class G (4-6-0) steam locomotives coupled back to back. The other test locomotive, originally numbered # 4800, was class R1.

Both locomotives had the distinctive streamlining, but # 4800 was the only unit ever to have a riveted body, giving rise to the nickname "Old Rivets". All subsequent models had welded bodies. The streamlining is usually attributed to Raymond Loewy, but a Classic Trains Magazine article by Hampton C. Wayt (Donald Dohner: The Man Who Designed "Rivets", summer 2009, pp. 30-35) has argued otherwise.

After testing, the GG1 went into production: although the R1 reached a higher speed (120 miles per hour versus 115 miles per hour), the GG1 had better tracking.

Twelve 385 horsepower GEA-627-A1 traction motors drove the six 57 inch driving wheels to deliver 4,620 horsepower, but the GG1 could achieve a maximum of 8,500 horsepower for short bursts.

1. 4800 had the distinction of hauling the first electric train out of the Washington D.C. Union Station on 28 January 1935. The Pennsylvania Railroad ordered fourteen more GG1s from General Electric but the remaining one hundred and twenty-five were built at Altoona, Pennsylvania between 1935 and 1943, with electrical components from Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh and chassis built by Baldwin.

1. 4800 operated until 1979, when it was retired by Conrail after forty-four years of service. In 1980, it was bought by the Lancaster Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society for $30,000. Restored at Strasburg, Pennsylvania, it was loaned to the museum in 1982 and donated outright in 2000."