Eastern Railroad Discussion > Y'know the GG1 next to the Alleghany at the Ford Museum

No? You will soon!

Henry Ford Museum in Detroit has purchased PRR GG1 #4909 from the Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society today and is in the process of removing asbestos as well as the transformer prior to it's move to the museum.

The museum will place it next to the C&O Alleghany after it is cosmetically restored.

Good news for one of the two surviving Leatherstocking Railway
Historical Society's saved GG1's which have been sitting in Milford, NY on a siding for years.

http://www.thedailystar.com/local/local_story_091040024.html

/Mitch

One of the reasons getting a good shot of 1601 is so tough , other than the lighting , is ROOM, or the lack of it.
This will cause a major reshuffle to get these two together.

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Both an Allegheny and a GG1 are massive beasts and it's so hard to get a shot of 1601 in such tight confines. Here are a couple of my "tries"

The Henry Ford is probably the most amazing Museum there is outside of Washington DC, Dayton, and Union.

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Awesome..

Wright Patterson Airforce Museum, Dayton OH -
the Illinois Railroad Museum of air (and space) craft!

Should be quite an undertaking getting the GG1 inside.

I admit, I'm not a big fan of crammed displays, either.
On the otherhand, better restored and indoors then rusting
outdoor, or scrapped.

/Mitch

What is the general condition of the two remaining Alleghenies? I'm sure this has been, ah, robustly discussed before, but if some member of the "More Money Than Brains" club were to decide he needed some decent power to drag his two-axle wooden bobber caboose around his estate, would either one of them be viable choices for operational restoration?

Current member-in-good-standing of the "No Money, No Brains, Wishful Thinking" club.

I don't think the one at the Ford would be too for gone, I beleive it's been indoors for the better part of 50 years.

MagnumForce Wrote:
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> I don't think the one at the Ford would be too for
> gone, I beleive it's been indoors for the better
> part of 50 years.

C&O auctually ran the locomotive under power to Dearborn after retiring it. It is still leaking lube oil to this day. If it ever could be restored, it would be a great candidate mechanically.

Has it ever been at least semi-seriously evaluated for operation? With enough money, of course, one could build another Jawn Henry from scratch. But I can't help but wonder what the "realistic hypothetical" effort would be.

An H8 is simply too big to be considered for restoration and operation. What road is going to allow an engine with a driver axle-loading of over 80,000 lbs out on its rails? (The 6 driving axles carry over 500,000 lbs. and the total weight exceeds 770,000 lbs.) To say nothing of what it would cost to dis-assemble and restore/replace every component on that beast. ( NKP 765 soaked up over half a million dollars, even with all that volunteer labor. ) N&W 1218 would be a better candidate, even in its gutted condition, but there really isn't any remotely realistic chance that 1601 will ever steam again. But, I would love to be wrong about this.

I agree; there's no question about the sheer scale of such an effort rendering it unlikely in the extreme.

But now I'm wondering why 80k per drive axle is an issue - surely modern ribbon rail is at least as robust as the jointed rail of yesteryear? What is the average axle weight of the biggest modern diesels - SD90MAC, for instance?

About 70000 pounds per axle. I believe the newest EMD's all weigh about 420000 pounds.