Pennsylvania Railroad GE GG1 Electric #4919

Pennsylvania Railroad Altoona Works built Pennsylvania Railroad GE GG1 electric locomotive #4919 in 1942. It was 79 feet 6 inches long, 15 feet high, 10 feet 4 inches wide, weighed 475,000 pounds, produced 4,620 horsepower, had a tractive effort of 70,700 pounds, and used a 2-C-C-2 wheel arrangement. The GG1 was noted for its exterior designed by industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and all 139 GG1s produced from 1934 to 1943 were delivered exclusively to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Painted in the railroad's trademark Brunswick green with standard Clarendon lettering, with Futura style lettering used before 1942, the GG1 was designed to operate in either direction and was used mainly to pull passenger trains. It handled all main line passenger service in electrified zones between New York City, New York, Washington, DC, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, drawing electric current from overhead wires through pantographs at both ends of the locomotive. Its original number, 4919, was changed to 4917 when it was transferred to Amtrak, then changed to 4934 in a general renumbering in June 1973, and later returned to 4919. The GG1 was the longest operating class of locomotives on front line service in the world, including steam and diesel, and remained the fastest U.S. cable-supplied electric locomotives until 1969, when Amtrak's Metroliner was introduced. This locomotive ran almost 5.5 million miles before being retired on February 1, 1981.

Roanoke, Virginia · United States