Railroaders' Nostalgia > Forbidden (sort of) Tales of the AFT

Forbidden (sort of) tales of the AFT

In my last AFT story (#32) I talked about our trip through Penn Station. I was back in the Exit Car at the time. But fellow AFTer and, at this moment estranged (that's the forbidden part), TO member SP5312 had snagged himself a GG-1 cab-ride. (Way to go, Dale!)
Anyway, I contacted SP5312 at his undisclosed location and asked if he'd share his story of that day...

 
 
When we stopped to switch power prior to going out to Long Island, I had time to walk up to the head-end to take a few shots.
As the GG1s were coupled to the train, I asked the engineer if I could take a couple of pics of the cab. He gladly let me up, telling me there wasn't much room and to watch my head. He wasn't kidding. As soon as you enter the door, you had to make a choice, either left or right as that big buzz box of a transformer room was staring you in the face.
As I got behind the engineer, I introduced myself and he asked if I wanted to stay in the cab when we departed. Well let me see, never been in a GG1, saw a few running past us, a cab ride, hmm, a nano-second might have past before I said yes.
It wasn't long before the air test was done and we started to roll. As we got going, this thing was just buzzing and clicking. It was better than any diesel I had been in up to this point, shooting the Sharks from a PA came later. 
It was really cool as we entered Penn Station. People were all over the place; trains were coming and going.
All of a sudden there was a big flash behind us and the load meter went to zero. The engineer said something that included a four-letter word – and then we came alive again.
Another "what the ...." and we continued to roll through with strange looks coming from the platforms. As we rolled along deeper into the caverns of Penn, the load dropped again. We were now starting downhill to go under the river.
The engineer said he was just going to let it roll. It was such a weird view, looking down that long hood into a tunnel that looked too narrow. As we continued along, we picked up speed. The AFT was limited to 45, I don't remember how fast the speedo showed, but I'm sure it was all of that.
We exited the tunnel and came to a stop under power, waiting for the Long Island to take over.
I had no idea we had denuded the train of antennas, the first being off the entrance/control car and then the bunk car. My Radio Shack scanner held up but the antenna, along with others for TV, FM and train were only smoking holes in the roof.  
All said and done, what a ride!
 
Palmdale, Blue 24, exiled sp5312.   Back to the bunker.
 

i loved the Gs ... i made one qualifying run in one back in '79