The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1: Farewell to the GG1s Day
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| Image courtesy Peter Brixey |
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Saturday, October 29,1983, was the last day that a GG1 led a train. It was a special day, a day that the New Jersey Transit had set aside to say farewell to the GG1s.
In the fall of 1979, Conrail retired its fleet of GG1s and on July 1, 1980 conveyed 13 of them to the NJT. Just six of these were officially in service with only three (numbers 4877, 4879 and 4882) actually operating. On May 1, 1981, Amtrak retired its forty GG1s, making the three being used by NJT the last operating GG1s.
4877 was repainted Tuscan red with pinstripes in May of 1981 by New Jersey Transit. This project was inspired by the "Blackjack" project and was financed with money donated by the Jersey Central Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
On the evening of Friday, October 28, 1983, GG1 number 4879 made the last regularly scheduled revenue run, hauling train number 3323, the 5:20 pm, out of New York Penn Station to the locomotive change at South Amboy, NJ.
The next day three ceremonial, Matawan, NJ to Newark, NJ, round trip excursions were run using all three of the GG1s. Later at the "Farewell to the GG1s" festivities, 4877 was the featured locomotive. However, 4882 has the honor of being the very last GG1 to run under its own power when it pulled 4877 and 4879 into the yard after "Farewell to the GG1s Day."