The Amtrack GG-1/2

This locomotive is well known, but not much about it is known. I was looking at GG-1s the other day and I was surprised when I happened upon one which was black and cut in half. It was number 4846, an ex-Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 that had wrecked after hitting track equipment, rendering only half of the train reusable. The train was scrapped in March 1967 and promptly bought by Amtrak. The train was cut in two and the wrecked half sent to a scrap yard while the good half was used as a switcher and a snow blower. On the back you might notice the exhaust vent for the jet to melt the snow and ice off of the tracks. The train also had a conventional snowplow on the front which was later changed out for another one. The train sat in front of the Wilmington shops and was scrapped in 1983. The train was in the April 1971 issue of Trains magazine and the book The Remarkable GG-1. 


Below are pictures I've found online of this amazing train and all rights go to their original owners.

The train to the left in the top picture is a New York Central P-Motor electric passenger locomotive of which only twenty two were made. Manufactured by ALCO-GE the P-Motor was more powerful than it's predecessors bearing a more advanced design and the same wheel configuration as the PRR GG-1 (2-C+C-2). This wheel configuration was also used on the New Haven EP3s. The P-Motor also sported nose suspended traction motors. They were originally built and owned by many railroads for the large scale Cleveland Union Terminal. The majority of the locomotives, though, were owned by New York Central, who later bought the rest in the 1950's after the terminal's electrification was scrapped in favor of diesels. They were remade as P-2s and remaining twenty one were sent to the New York electric zone. Whilst there they would supplement the T-Motors which were in use since as early as 1913. They then played out the main part of their career working passenger trains.

Below is a P-Motor I found online working for Amtrak in faded ex-Pennsy RR livery.

Photo 1: #4846 after acquisition of Amtrak at Amtrak's Wilmington Shops, Wilmington, Delaware, April 12, 1980
Link: http://bit.ly/1Tfk1vi
Photo by: Joe Osciak

Photo 2: #4846 before the wreck and conversion, unknown location, unknown date
Link: http://bit.ly/1HxUCpQ (Link is to the full size picture here, it has disappeared from the internet since I first uploaded it)
Photo by: Unknown

Photo 3: ex-Penn Central P1 #4625 at Croton-Harmon, New York, June 09, 1974
Link: http://bit.ly/1DyovLX
Photo by: George W. Hamlin