The Last Run of the GG-1 | October 29, 1983 

I rode in the cab of the very last run of a GG1 locomotive on October 29, 1983. A thrilling experience that I will never forget. It was in service for N. J. Transit. We hit 90 mph. It was surprisingly loud inside for an electric locomotive.

First train I ever rode ... As a young boy in the 1950s rode a GG1 from D.C. to NYC to visit grandma. The image of standing on the platform next to that huge locomotive is permanently ingrained in my mind. Its size was absolutely jaw-dropping.

What a unique engine the GG1 was. One of my favorite engine designs ever. This is a bittersweet video for me. I was too little to have seen the GG1 except in a museum. Thank you for posting this video, because it brings to light an engine that only looked ‘cool’ to me, but never gave me an idea of how it ran, what the horn sounded like, and whether it was a smooth engine when it rolled across the rails. On a side note, that car set on the NJ Transit line is sharp looking. The aluminum can color we get now on NJT is just there. Like the navy blue much more.

Never found electric locomotives to be interesting..except the GG1 what a beautiful, powerful beast of a locomotive. The pinnacle of electric locomotive design in the U.S. as far as I'm concerned.

It is good to see at least one video from 1983. That was a special time in my life. While I was not in attendance of this event, I do remember things in this particular day. This date fell on a Saturday that year, and it was a cool crisp autumn day. This was coming off a very hot summer in Philadelphia. There are a few songs I remember from then, which bring back memories from then, which I am sure would bring back memories for those of you who attended the above event. The #1 song from that day was Islands in the stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, which hit the top that week, and stay there for 2 weeks. This song knocked Bonnie Tyler's Total eclipse of the sun from the top, after that song was #1 for the previous 4 weeks. #3 was All night long by Lionel Richie, which would knock KR and DP out if #1. #4 was True by Spanish Ballet. #5 was One thing leads to another by The Fixx. Other songs I remember were King of Pain by the Police at #7. Their previous hit I'll be Watching You, which would end up being the #1 hit for 1983, would drop from #55 the previous week to #92 this week, for it's final week in the hot 100. This day being a cool crisp day, just seven weeks prior, on September 10, the temperature in Philadelphia hit 97 degrees, setting a new record for that date, which still stands. Just 100 days prior to this crisp autumn day, was the Diana Ross concert in Central Park in NY, which was cut short by massive thunderstorms, which also broke a heat wave that had been gripping the area for over a week. At #14 on the charts for October 29, 1983 was Come on Feel the Noise by Quiet Riot. The lead singer of QR, the late Kevin DuBrow, celebrated his 28th birthday on this date. The #11 song was Say Say Say by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, which would knock Lionel Richie out I'll f #1 to become the final #1 song in 1983, and remain #1 into 1984. At #12 thus week was Suddenly it"s Summer by the Motels.

Great looking locomotive, so much better than we have today

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

COOL! Back when many passenger trains were still steam heated (non HEP) trains. You can see the steam traps on the ends of the cars and there's no HEP receptacles either. Love those Pullman built smooth sided passenger cars. By his date, Amtrak was already an all HEP railroad, as their last steam heated train was the Silver Star / Silver Meteor. This train made it's final departure from New York Penn Station as a steam heated train in May of 1982, to Florida and had a GG1 Electric Locomotive pull it to Washington DC, Union Station. (The Southern most part of the Northeast Corridor Line) From there, EMD SDP40F locomotives likely pulled the train into Florida.

That Horn sounds Amazing!

My son and I were back in the train, that day. We framed the poster, invitation, and tickets, and seat checks. It doesn't seem like 40 years.

Outstanding footage 👍

This is the footage without old film noise & static

Raymond Loewy designed this decades ago! Beautiful design still, I wonder why it was retired, it still seems to pull just fine!

Great footage. Glad you posted this!

great stuff you have. keep-em coming

I lived in NJ 1982-84 and I was on that train. Wonderful memories. I still have the poster, framed, on my bedroom wall. I used to see the GG1's at South Amboy - they were in poor condition - frames cracked and welded repairs. And I saw the original "Rivets" at the Pennsylvania RR Museum.

R.I.P. PRR GG1

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.

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 work in Annandale NJ and saw the 4877 sitting on a short siding at the Annandale station for awhile before it was moved to Lebanon NJ. I saw what looked like a GG1 but didn't believe it, wasn't a reason for a GG1 to be that far up a now dead end line. So I didn't walk down to look at it. Turns out it was the 4877 and I found out later after it had left Lebanon.

"honey why are you crying so damn loud"

Amtrak GG-1s ran until 1986 ? in rush hour service pulling the old heavy weight cars . Nice engine . I rode this train regularly out of Penn Station New York . Definitely not 1981or 1983 , although these dates may have been the last regular service dates.

40 year anniversary in 6 days

And a history of the GG1 rode before us not really knowing. what to say other than hi and a huge part of PRR history went before out eyes sadly

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....

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

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.

Is that locomotive like from 1940's ? It looks wonderful! The time when locomotive design had its charm and style. Not the modern angular stuff.

40 years ago next week

I wonder where 4877 is now? Awesome vid!

Makes you wonder if someone could restore one to operate on today’s lines.

I was 15 y/o

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.

Video in 1983? What type of camera was this?