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Post by david1 on Jan 27, 2024 20:33:19 GMT
I have two Mth/railking conventional gg1's from around 1996. They look and run great. I'm taking them apart now to clean and grease and oil them. I have not ran them in years and with the layout I have now they will be a perfect fit.
Anyone of have these size gg1's that you run? Back in the mid 90's the Lionel gg1's were expensive and noisy because of the pulmore motors. The MTH version are can motors and run quiet so I picked them up. When the scale ones came out I picked up a couple of them and they were great. Put the mth ones away and now I can use them again.
Which ones do you have, semi scale or scale?
Dave
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Post by healey36 on Jan 27, 2024 21:04:35 GMT
My only GG1 is a Williams semi-scale from the 1990s; it’s a dual-motored beast. I had a set of scale-sized heavyweights to run with it, but they were too big for my layout. Now I just run 2400-series cars behind it, which look fine, especially the North Pole Express versions.
Other than the pick-up rollers, I don’t think I’ve ever lubricated it. Probably should do that the next time I take it down off the shelf.
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Post by rockymountaineer on Jan 28, 2024 0:05:18 GMT
Dave, at one point I had quite a few GG-1's. But practicality has sunk in pretty hard for my roster. So I've thinned out my collection and parted with many of them. Only TWO remain: one semi-scale Lionelchief 2.0 GG-1 that heads up a train of small Lionel heavyweights from the 1990's, and one VisionLine Conrail Bicentennial GG-1 that heads up aluminum 18" Pennsy passenger cars.
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Post by Craignor on Jan 28, 2024 0:50:36 GMT
Dave,
I have a Railking Brunswick green GG1 with Locosounds. Always runs like a champ. Got it from Mountain trains on 2/16/01 for $279. Locosounds came after Proto 1 and before Proto 2. It gets a bad rap. The sounds are not great, but they are ok, but it does have directional headlights and cruise control. The cruise control make it a smooth runner on tight turns.
I still enjoy running it, either pulling shorty passenger cars or my traditional sized freight cars.
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Post by david1 on Jan 28, 2024 1:11:41 GMT
Its funny how many types of systems were in the early gg1's. Conventional, locosounds, proto 1, proto 2, and Now proto 3. mine are green five stripes and what amazed me when I first bought them were that they ran so quiet.
I was so used to the Lionels growl that I thought something was wrong with the mth gg1 as it glided around the layout almost silent.
Dave
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Post by Traindiesel! on Jan 28, 2024 2:05:06 GMT
Ahhh, the GG1, my favorite locomotive! I have a PRR Brunswick green five stripe and a black Penn Central, both semi scale from Williams.
The PRR model, my first ever GG1 acquisition, was found at one of the first York Meets I attended in the early 1980s. A whole lot less expensive than the Lionel model at the time. At the same Meet I found a five car set of PRR Williams semi scale passenger cars to run with it. That set at the time was the Crown Jewel of my fleet!
I acquired the Penn Central during a heavy ice storm in the early 1990s. Me and a friend of mine took off from work and made a trek to Nicholas Smith during the storm. (We couldn’t drive to work but we went to a train store!) All the highways were covered in ice and snow with only a half a lane passable. A usually thirty minute ride took about two and a half hours. But we made it safely and the store was open. On the shelf was a beautiful, sleek, shiny Williams Penn Central GG1. And home it went with me.
On a subsequent trip to Nicholas Smith I picked up a set of Williams New York Central Luxury Liner 21” aluminum passenger cars to run with the GG1. As I was checking out at the counter I was told that another customer recently came in looking for the PC GG1. He couldn’t believe someone was crazy enough to go out in an ice storm to go to a hobby shop. I just chuckled. Yeah, that’s me!! The semi scale GG1 pulling the 21” cars looks like The Grinch’s dog pulling the loaded sleigh! But I love it!!
I prefer scale model trains these days but I still love my few post war and semi scale trains. I have thirteen other scale GG1s from MTH, Lionel, 3Rd Rail and Williams. (Hmmm, I should probably even out that number).
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Post by rtraincollector on Jan 28, 2024 2:10:53 GMT
I have 3 William's scale GG1 which I have been told by rivet counters that they may be bigger but they are still only semi scale
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Post by dlagrua on Jan 28, 2024 10:06:43 GMT
I have five GG1 engines. Two P/W ( one horizontal engine), Two MPC, and one early Williams. The engines all pull well but unfortunately I do not run any of them. I came to the conclusion that running them without a catenary system looked odd and setting up such a system on a large layout is a chore.
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Post by healey36 on Jan 28, 2024 12:39:30 GMT
The GG1 could run on an electrified third-rail as well as overhead lines, so I run mine with the pantograph folded. The lack of overhead lines is just a matter of imagination, at least for me. Now, running with the rear pantograph raised without overhead lines, I’ll admit, that can look a little weird.
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Post by david1 on Jan 28, 2024 17:45:49 GMT
Even though I Dont have catenary I imagine I do.Running a gg1 with the rear pantograph down is just not right.
Dave
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Post by atsda on Jan 29, 2024 20:36:19 GMT
Rockymountaineer, I like that ConRail GG-1 pulling the Pennsy passengers. Alfred
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Post by atsda on Jan 29, 2024 20:38:34 GMT
Brian, the equipment you got at risk to your own personal safety is commendable. Alfred
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Post by atsda on Jan 29, 2024 20:45:27 GMT
Dave, although I don't have any GG-1s, they are my favorite real-life engines. I've ridden on many trains headed by GG-1s, and in my high school and college days, was trackside photographing them - getting extraordinarily close to the tracks - making the engineers very nervous. I know I have one 35 mm slide of a GG-1 coming up on me on a curve that is breathtaking. I can't see any more and need to have my son find it (along with my other train photos) and get it to digital format. Alfred
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Post by rockymountaineer on Jan 29, 2024 22:54:42 GMT
...
I prefer scale model trains these days but I still love my few post war and semi scale trains. I have thirteen other scale GG1s from MTH, Lionel, 3Rd Rail and Williams. (Hmmm, I should probably even out that number). Even when my roster needed SEVERE downsizing, I never owned 13 scale GG-1's. You win the "buying trains like a drunken sailor" award HANDS DOWN!!! LOL!!! 
The best part of owning a semi-scale GG-1 and running it with a string of Lionel Madison cars is the nostalgia factor of Lionel using that train on its legendary 1949 Showroom Layout in NYC. It was a staple train running on the outside loop down to the subway level of that magnificent layout.
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Post by Traindiesel! on Jan 29, 2024 23:29:34 GMT
Brian, the equipment you got at risk to your own personal safety is commendable. Alfred
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