| Posted by Batman on May 13, 2011 | |
Jeremy , what did these GG1`s sound like ?
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They had huge blowers whooshing to keep things cool, the motor gears made a low to medium hum like a big, old trolley car and the horn was big booming blaat. Ironically, if you get a recording of steam locomotive 4449, it's horn is about the same!
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Dennis, You forgot that the sound of all those wheels carrying all that weight along the track, especially in "enclosed" stations like NY Penn, Newark, and 30th Street was like "rolling thunder." The horn was an almost indescribably "flat" "Baaaammmmmpp". One of the G's other interesting characteristics was a very dull yellow headlight, which never appeared to be bright enough to provide sufficient illumination, especially at speed. Still MISS them.
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Gentlemen (those of you who saw these locomotives in action) the 1973 film "The last detail" has a Penn Central GG1 pulling into a station at slow speed right next to Jack Nicholson, and it honks its horn in a mildly amusing scene. I can't say I recommend the film due to its intense use of profanity and cannot remember much other locomotive noise, but the producers of that movie really worked to do as much "realism" (read: in the actual location of the story, and not on a soundstage somewhere) as possible so it might be worth a look just for the "G".
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