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Some GG1s had the air intake grilles moved up, after a freak snowstorm caused infiltration through the linen filters of fine snow particles.  I'm not sure if I ever noticed it before but the raised intakes are on both sides of each nose, i.e. four intakes. 

Originally there were only two intakes, one on each end of the lower body on opposite sides.   Why was there a need for the extra intakes when they were moved up ?

 

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Ahhh.  THAT snow storm.  I remember it very well.  It happened over my birthday in 1958.  The snow was driving like a cold wet sand storm.  The finest "snow" particales imaginable.  Have not experienced one like that since.

The story in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin was that due to a occasional  shortage  of the GG-1 filter material , there was a service tech at the PRR facility who wanted to guarantee he always had filter material for his service assignments, so he stock piled large quantities hidden away to guarantee replacement filter material. 

Well, turns out that there were GG-i's stopped dead in their tracks with clogged filters all over the system and guess who was not able to make it in to work that day in the deep snow?    I also seem to remember there were shorted out motors too????

However in the 1991 summer issue of the PRR High Line rag the retired railroad transportation  superintendent only mentioned weather related  electrical  problems and turnout issues.  Company position?

I was going to start another topic about this but then saw Dan's topic from a year ago, so I thought I could add on to it. Even my new friend Tom Tee chimed in.

I was searching for several years for the March-April 1958 edition of The Pennsy  to complete my collection from 1958-1960 to cover the end of steam on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The magazine/employee newsletter arrived this week. To balance out all of this diesel/electric hubbub, I'll mention that the last active PRR steamer was B6sb #5244, running under lease, until July 1959. 

The Pennsy March April 1958The Pennsy March April 1958 part 2

Anyway, that edition covered the Blizzard of 1958 (the snow started falling February 15th) with a detailed 3-page article.

Here are a few tidbits:

  • "Fine crystals of snow penetrated the screens into the electric traction motors. The crystals melted and shorted out these motors until on Tuesday morning 134 of the fleet of 139 GG-1 locomotives, mainstay of PRR electrified territory, were wholly or partially disabled."
  • "One day, four shopped and repaired locomotives which were returned to service promptly shorted out again."
  • "At 3:10am Sunday, Foreman Elder Wingerd and his track gang set out to find a rail break near Carlisle. They drove a truck as far as they could and then walked. At Watts, they found 14 inches of rail head broken out. They hunted for the emergency rail left along the right of way, but it was lost under five feet of snow. So while a rail was trucked in from Chambersburg, Mr. Wingerd roused a nearby farmer from sleep and rented a tractor. When the rail arrived, it was sledded behind the tractor up middle of the track to the break. The crew installed it and opened up the Cumberland Valley Branch." 
  • "The GG-1 noted for speed and power, has three electric circuits feeding its 12 traction motors. To cool them, powerful fans draw air into ducts over the motors. This air is filtered by screens of fine French linen. Few motors had shorted out in the past, and the screens were considered satisfactory in ordinary snow. But the snow of February 15 and 16 was extraordinarily dry and minute."
  • "On Wednesday, 65 of these locomotives were shopped with all three circuits dead; 34 others had lost two circuits and 26 had lost one circuit. The wind was still driving and powdering the snow Wednesday morning when John L. Trowill, supervisor of electric locomotives, rode inside a GG-1 out of Philadelphia. Standing directly in front of the air-vent screens, he could see nothing coming in. But as he moved away, he glanced at his jacket. It was covered with a glaze of icy snow crystals. These minute particles of moisture, penetrating the linen, were the cause of the power failures. This vapor crippled the great engines like a poison gas." 
  • "For the most part, passenger diesels were not affected by the storm except when delays en route froze their heating systems after they had run out of water, P-5 type freight locomotives, although having no steam boilers, were used in conjunction with crippled GG-1s having operating boilers for car heating. Thus, some trains ran with mixed engines." 
  • "At Hudson, site of the old Manhattan Transfer, electric engines took over from diesels to haul trains through the New York tunnels where internal combustion engines are prohibited. To service diesels there and at Meadows Enginehouse, two dozen pipe fitters, machinists and diesel electricians were rushed east from Altoona and Columbus."
  • "Railroad employes themselves had trouble getting to work. A fireman living seven miles from Lancaster borrowed a horse. Many walked." 

 

Tom 

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