The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

A History of Pennsylvania's Railroad Industry

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The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located across the street from the Strasburg Railroad.
The museum preserves rare and valuable artifacts showing the evolution of America's railroad
industry in spacious, well-lighted, climate-controlled buildings.

Raymond Loewy-styled GG-1 locomotives were introduced in 1934, built until 1943 for a total of 139 units by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and served
until 1983 between New York and Washington, D.C. and as far west as Harrisburg, well into the Amtrak era. The GG-1 drew 11,000 volts from
overhead catenary and had 12 25-cycle motors giving it a total of 4,620 horsepower in continuous duty. It could easily exceed 100mph with a train of
more than 14 cars. In a test run a GG-1 reached 135mph and was still accelerating preceptibly when the crew reached the end of specially-prepared
track and had to slow down. Locomotive 4935 was restored to the original Loewy-designed paint scheme in 1977 by Friends of the GG-1. In 1978
while waiting for a train home from Baltimore, I saw this locomotive stop there with a NY-Washington corridor train.

E-44 locomotives were built for freight service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1963 by General Electric. They could produce 4,400 horsepower in
continuous service.

General Motors' Electro Motive Division (EMD) built 428 E7 locomotives for American railroads. Number 5901 is the only survivor of all those units. It
is equipped with two 1,000 horsepower 12-cylinder diesel engines with an operational range from 275 to 800 rpm. Fully loaded and ready for service
the locomotive weighs 315,000 pounds.

Shay geared locomotives were designed to negotiate heavy grades, sharp curves, and uneven track with heavy loads, and were used mainly on
sometimes hastily-laid track in quarrying, mining and logging operations. Their maximum speed usually was something less than 15mph, but their
tractive abilities were impressive.

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