GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

GEC - that first one is a strange looking wee beastie - it almost looks as though it was rebuilt from a wrecked freight motor that started out in life with two sets of traction bogies under it, one at each end, mounted under a longer deck

You are close; the locomotives were never wrecked. The original 28 motors were built during 1926 in a variety of configurations, but were semi-permanently coupled into 14 pairs. The BB1 was a prototype set up for AC catenary, the BB2 was a DC powered third rail motor for coach-yard operations around Sunnyside yard and New York Penn Station in New York City, and the BB3 was an AC freight motor for the Long Island Railroad, a PRR subsidiary.

In 1934, an additional 14 locomotives were purchased, but as B1 "single units" set up for AC catenary, since by this point the main "legs" of the PRR electrified routes (today's Northeast Corridor and Harrisburg Lines). Around this time, the pairs were all split and reclassified B1. The BB2s were also converted to AC power during this time.

This is why there is a "deck" on only one end, since the other end was close-coupled to the second unit, back to back.


These locomotive spent almost the entirety of their existence in coach yards, specifically Sunny Side in New York, 30th Street in Philadelphia, and Harrisburg. On rare occasions these engines would travel out onto the mainline with MoW trains. However, their necessity greatly diminished as time wore on. With the rise of the diesel switcher, the smoke abatement issues associated with steam switchers no longer were an issue. As passenger traffic declined in the 1950s and 60s, there was less work for these increasingly anachronistic mini-motors. Diesel switcher increasingly displaced them. Reportedly, they were withdrawn from Harrisburg coach yard duties due to public complaints about their loud blower fans. Penn Central retired the last one from the Sunnyside Yard in the mid 1970s.

I'll have to hit the books when I get home to check the specific history of 4751, but I think it was the last B1 in operation when it was retired and scrapped. The model is painted as it would have appeared in the late 1960s, in preparation for the Penn Central merger.