Personal videos I've taken from my various railfanning experiences. Videos are mostly Amtrak related to the Northeast USA but does include my various travels.
Visit my other channel DJL Parks TV for videos from my trips to Walt Disney World and other theme / amusement parks.
This being Spring of 1983, at that time I did not realize what great things were ahead as the year progressed. 1983 was an awesome year. This was coming off an overall mild Winter, with the exception of the post Groundhog Day blizzard, which buried every place from Washington D.C. northward under 2 feet of snow. The Summer ahead was a very hot one. Many songs that were big in the Spring of 1983 were Overkill by Men At Work, Der Kommissar by After The Fire, Twilight Zone by Golden Earrings, Back on The Chain Gang by The Pretenders, Let's Dance by David Bowie, Ya Are by Lionel Ritchie, So Wrong by Patrick Simmons, aka Patrick Doobie, Something's Going On by Frida, and Family Man by Hall & Oates. I realize that I did not say anything about the GG1, which this video is focused on, but it is good to see a video from those days, and remember the music from then, which brings back great memories of those long gone days.
I remember this place well , drove overnight and the slept in my Pinto to spend the day shooting the engine changes , early 80's as I recall. G's to E's , what a great memory. Had the run of the place ; station , engine pit , nobody ever said anything.... Try that today...... Thanks for posting this !!
That's a fantastic document of SF at that time. I lived there most of the 90s (at the corner of Powell and Bush seen here!) and this video instantly brought me back! Thank you for posting!
I liked when that steam train was whistling, It was the most iconic train whistle in the world and some people use recordings of it in videos that might involve trains since 2000 to today. I really enjoyed this video.
I remember when the steam engine ran and then the G G 1 would go then come back to South Amboy and then go to the mu yard and then the steam would make the Bay Head run I was born in South Amboy and I was born in December 19th 1951
Mine are the 4900's!!! "THE BEST THAT MAN CAN GET"!!!! Remember, the Gillette Razor commercial!! Although i heard that expression before that commercial for GILLETTE!! Anyhow, America needs RAYMOND LOEWY TO BUILD A MODERNIZED GG1 with the same sounds it originally had!!! Plus the AIR BRAKE SOUND!!! And the SAME BELLS & WHISTLES, because they were the Alltime BEST!!!!!! What could top the GG1 HORN!!!!!! NOTHING TODAY, OR YESTERYEAR OR EVER!!!! Earl of ElBarrio, NYC,NY. 8:55PM. 6/24/24
Please upload this and stick with the original aspect ratio of 4:3. there is a HUGE discrepancy especially in the model train hobby about the size and shape of these engines, that is made even worse by a stretched wide video of a 1983 when wide screen was not a thing for video recording except maybe in a movie theater. The view at 1:35, 2:00, and 3:28 make this more obvious as well as I have a copy of the same engine and in the right aspect ratio it is not pixelated on the screen.
It's a crying shame they ever took these things off the rails. I still don't understand why one of the remaining examples couldn't be refurbished with modern components.
on paper if someone could restore a GG1 it could still run on some parts of the NEC, Afaik the current owner Amtrak has not changed the electricity any and the overheads are still using the same voltage and frequency. I cant remember if NYC through NJ to DC is 25hz or 60hz
There is one or two of these on an overgrown siding in Cooperstown Junction, NY - just North of Oneonta (Big D&H town back in the day), along route 7 just past the turnoff to go to Cooperstown.
In theory, you COULD but it would be expensive as hell. The transmissions would all need to be completely rebuilt, with a different system for cooling than originals, and I don’t think there’s anywhere it could run on modern electrical rail systems. Best to just slap a diesel behind
These machines were one of the main ones that I looked at that never made it difficult for them to carry everything they could pull, I had to look at the impressive Milwaukee ones
I unfortunately was born in 84 which I believe was the year these giant beauties were all retired. I missed these trains when they were on revenue service. Thanks a lot MOM!
Here in new Zealand way down in Christchurch back in the early 70's we said goodbye to our electric locomotives on the Christchurch to Lyttleton suburban trains. These electric locomotives were built specifically for the line to the port,for both freight and passenger trains.the Ec class were built by English Electric in the 1920's to replace steam on the port run.only one was saved and can be seen under its own power once in a while.along with the other electric lico used on the Arthur's pass section through to otira on the trans alpine route from Christchurch to Greymouth. Plus there are a couple of ex Wellington EMU sets along with the electric locomotives that replaced the original Eo class locos these replacement units were built by Toshiba engineering of Japan,and these locos were phased out when the railways became a corporation in the 90's. The Toshiba locos were eventually used on Wellington suburban trains due to a shortage of suburban EMUs
Very nice information and video, however the wide screen video was not out until the 1990's so having this as a wide screen video stretches the thing to wide and and to low....
