For more than two decades, the Pennsylvania Railroad experimented with locomotive designs in search of a high-speed, mainline passenger electric. That search ended in 1934 with the GG1, a cooperative effort by the PRR, Baldwin, Westinghouse, and General Electric, based largely on neighbor New Haven's successful EP3 juice jack. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy cleaned up the original riveted body to create a design that looked contemporary for half a century.
The GG1 fleet hustled passenger traffic of all types along the Pennsy's multi-track raceway from New York to Washington and west to Harrisburg, including the famed Congressional and Broadway Limited. With 18 Pullmans in tow, a GG1 could hit 100 mph. Regeared for freight service and run as double-headers, a pair of GG1s delivered about the same tractive effort as a Union Pacific Big Boy, with virtually no noise, no smoke, much less wear on the track, and significantly less maintenance. Many GG1s racked up more than five million miles of service, outlasting the railroad that built them and serving its two successors, the Penn Central and Conrail. If there were a Locomotive Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 would surely be one of the first inductees.
Add this fully die-cast Hall of Famer to your layout as a complete set or in one or more authentic PRR liveries, featuring station sounds for Pennsy name trains, smooth performance at any speed from a crawl to full throttle, dual-motored power to rival the prototype, smoke from the train heat boiler, and pantographs that automatically raise and lower according to the direction of travel. For 2007, we've even added sound effects to accompany the raising and lowering of the pantographs when the locomotive changes direction.
See the luxuries awaiting you on The East Wind
In the summer of 1940, the Pennsylvania, New Haven, Boston and Maine, and Maine Central Railroads cooperated to court travelers to Maine and New Hampshire. "Summertime Sensation!" proclaimed a brochure for the new, fully air conditioned East Wind. "First De Luxe All-Coach Train to Maine and New Hampshire! A daytime flyer - breezing from Washington to Portland between breakfast and dinner. Who now would think of driving over hot, crowded highways when so superbly appointed a train awaits? And at such low fares. Plan now to vacation in cool, unspoiled Maine or New Hampshire! The East Wind's two dedicated trainsets were an eclectic mix: each had a New Haven baggage car, three Pennsy coaches, and two food cars: a New Haven grille car and a tavern-lounge leased from the Atlantic Coast Line. This motley mix was united by a striking paint scheme applied by the Pennsy's shops: canary yellow with aluminum window band and pinstripes. A green five-stripe GG1 hustled the East Wind on the first part of its northward journey from Washington. A New Haven EP-3 took over from Penn Station to New Haven, then a NH Pacific to Worcester, a B&M Pacific to Portland, and finally a Maine Central Pacific to Bangor. In that first summer, business was so good that two more coaches were added. The East Wind would run one more summer in canary yellow before the special paint scheme gave way to wartime austerity - and on and off for ten summers after the war, before it finally succumbed to competition from the hot, crowded highways it had tried to replace.
Recreate the full original consist of the 1941 East Wind with these add-on sets. The coach and second diner in set 20-66124 simulate a third Pennsy coach and the ACL tavern-lounge, to complete the six-car set that entered service on June 21. Set 20-69124 features the two additional coaches added later that summer.
