wjm@whuxl.UUCP (MITCHELL) (10/26/84)
The museum in Branford, CT is the Shoreline Trolley Museum (formerly the Branford Electric RR Association). They have a large collection of ex-BMT equipment from NYC as well as much New Haven trolley equipment. It is about 75 miles north-east of NYC, not too far from I-95 (and there are signs giving directions from the Interstate). You can also take Metro North or Amtrak trains to New Haven and then take a local bus to the museum (I think its the F-2 line). For those of you in Southern California, you haven't been neglected since you can visit the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris (off of I-15E about 90 miles from LA and 90 miles from San Diego). Their collection specializes in LA area trolley equipment, and they also have cars from San Francisco, San Diego, and New Orleans. They also have operating diesel main line railroad equipment. Both of these museums are Operating museums, and you can ride the equipment on weekends and on holidays. Interurbans published a book "Trolley to the Past" which I bought from the OERM bookshop (admitted vested interest - I'm a member of OERM) that describes all the operating trolley museums in the US and Canada. For you GG-1 fans in the Midwest, Union RR Museum has a GG-1. I'd like to know if it is operational, and if so how did they do it - string up 11KV catenary and put in a frequency changer (GG-1's were designed to run on 25Hz, and 60Hz upsets their digestion :-)), or modify the GG-1 to run on 600 vdc?? Also, on the subject of GG-1's, I wish NJTransit would keep several fixed up for fan trips. Regards, Bill Mitchell
chaltas@uiucdcsb.UUCP (10/29/84)
I'm told the GG-1 at Union is NOT operational, as it has had its tranformer(s?) removed. The tranformers in GG-1s contain PCBs, currently on everyones Least Favorite Chemical of the Year list. (Last year's was dioxin), and for this reason GG-1's are not popular in working condition. (can you say paranoia? I knew you could) George Chaltas uiucdcs!chaltas
friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP (10/29/84)
Indeed, the GG-1 at Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois, is not operational, and is not planned to be. Right now, it's on display in Amtrak black livery; it is planned to restore it to PRR colors. But no one wants to fuss with 25 hertz or 11Kv problems, so there has been no intention of operating it. Union does have other "new" cars that are operational. Our Little Joe from South Shore has a new paint job, and can be operated over part of the system. And there are two of the old maroon and orange South Shore passenger coaches that were operated about a month ago, on Members' Weekend. It was clumsy, since most of the overhead is not pantograph compatible; they had to tow them by an electric loco out to the new mainline extension, which has catenary overhead, and then switch the power system over, reversing the procedure on return. But those 1500 vdc cars ran fine on the Museum's 600 vdc system, just slower (speed limit's 45 mph, anyway).