Nostalgia & History > Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder...

As locomotives go, PRR 4454 wouldn't win a beauty prize. It's not a PA or E-unit. Still this GE E44 has a functional beauty all its own. Here it is in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the very late 1960's or very early 1970's. While it rests alone here, soon it and its sister locomotives will be pulling long freights on the PC's electrified trackage. May her memory live for decades to come.
Bob

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Has she been scrapped or what?

She looks great.

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

refarkas Wrote:
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> As locomotives go, PRR 4454 wouldn't win a beauty
> prize. It's not a PA or E-unit. Still this GE E44
> has a functional beauty all its own. Here it is in
> Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the very late 1960's
> or very early 1970's. While it rests alone here,
> soon it and its sister locomotives will be pulling
> long freights on the PC's electrified trackage.
> May her memory live for decades to come.
> Bob

put 3 or 4 of those bricks together all running long hood forward whining up the mainline grade via Paoli on a ore train out of Philly destined for the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plant in Weirton,WV or the contrast of 4 of these electrics with square lines over arches on the Delaware River bridge hauling a loaded coal train headed for Coalport yard in Trenton with the coal destined for interchange with the LV at Phillipsburg for Bethlehem Steel

GP25 Wrote:
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> Has she been scrapped or what?
>
> She looks great.


Only one left that I am aware of and tha one is at Strasburg Pa at the museum. Don't recall her number off hand tho, perhaps the 4455? All the others a gone along with most of the GG1' all but one of the E33's (Ex VGN/N&W/NH Electrics) Ben

Virginian Railway 135 is the sole surviving E33. It is preserved at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

PRR 4465 is the only E44 I can think of that survives as noted above.

Z

I'm pretty ignorant about the Right Coast... Is the electrification still up where these ran? Are they using diesels now with Amtrak using the over head?

These ran long hood forward? Ouch!

And you're correct...I don't think the E44 engines would win a beauty prize. Ranks right up there with a BL2 in the ugly department.

JDE



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/12 00:43 by Steamjocky.

The E44s were equipped with dual cab control and could run long hood forward or short hood forward. The short hood was designated as the front of the loco. Given today's cost of diesel fuel one can't help but wonder if railroad management now regrets the abandonment of the electrfication and the electric locos.

Phil

Steamjocky Wrote:
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> These ran long hood forward? Ouch!
>
> And you're correct...I don't think the E44 engines
> would win a beauty prize. Ranks right up there
> with a BL2 in the ugly department.
>
> JDE

Some of the electrification is still up- the Northeast Corridor and the line from Philly to Harrisburg is one area. Between Harrisburg and Perryville along the Susquehanna River is gone.

dharris

Any wonder why they called these things bricks?

mojaveflyer Wrote:
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> I'm pretty ignorant about the Right Coast... Is
> the electrification still up where these ran? Are
> they using diesels now with Amtrak using the over
> head?

most of the catenary is removed on ex PRR lines that were electrified but the cat poles are still up, even where track was removed, for transmission wires to support the electric grid for power on the NEC and Harrisburg Line

The E44 saved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA is the 4465. Here's a shot I took in 2009

Seaboard

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Isn't there another saved E33 in Connecticut?

zephyrus Wrote:
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> Virginian Railway 135 is the sole surviving E33.
> It is preserved at the Virginia Museum of
> Transportation.
>
> PRR 4465 is the only E44 I can think of that
> survives as noted above.
>
> Z

What I recall the most was not the traction motor sounds but the overwhelming blower noise for the rectifiers in those things. They glowed purple at night! And when there was ice on the cat it was like watching an arc welder!
Gonut