No. 10078 2-C + C-2 GG-1 Electric Outline Locomotive, heading up the "Broadway Limited" Streamlined Passenger Train

 Pennsylvania Railroad

In the mid-1930s, the Pennsylvania Railroad was looking to update itself, so noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy was hired to create a streamlined locomotive design for PRR’s electrified lines between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., (completed in 1935) and west to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (completed in 1938), to replace the 14-wheel box cab 2-C-2 P-5a electric (3750 horsepower) from 1931 in fast passenger service (see No. 10226). The result was the outstanding successful 20-wheel 2-C + C-2 GG-1, so durable it remained a workhorse on these electrified rails until final retirement in the early 1980s. Few locomotives could match the awesome power produced by its General Electric-designed twelve-motor 4620-horsepower chassis. Fifty-eight (58) GG-1s were introduced into service in 1935-36, constructed in PRR’s Altoona works to power its new Loewy-designed “Fleet of Modernism,” inaugurated in 1938.  Forty-three (43) additional GG-1s were built between 1937-1939, and 38 more between 1942-1943, making a total of 139 operating units delivered. Originally all were painted dark Brunswick green with five gold stripes on the sides, but in 1952, six were repainted in the warm shade of Tuscan red with five gold stripes to haul some of the PRR’s crack streamlined trains, such as the sleek stainless steel “Congressional” (see No. 10018) and “Senator” (see No. 10494) and occasionally the colorfully painted Tuscan red  “Broadway Limited.”  In 1956, an additional three GG-1s were repainted in silver with a single Tuscan red stripe to pull the renowned Seaboard Air Line “Silver Meteor” (see No. 10126) and “Silver Star” deluxe streamliners between New York and Washington D.C. on their way to Miami.
 
The Pullman Company was selected to construct new lightweight streamlined cars to replace the boxy heavyweights in use before 1938, the new cars being part of the  “Fleet of Modernism” concept. The first completely streamlined train for PRR was the “Broadway Limited,” making its debut in June, 1938 (see No. 10506).  Loewy collaborated with noted Philadelphia-based architect Paul Cret to design the cars’ outstanding interiors.
 
Although Electro-Motive E-8 Diesel locomotives replaced steam power in the 1950s on non-electrified segments of the Pennsylvania Railroad, dependable GG-1 electrics continued to pull PRR’s top trains under catenary between New York to Washington D.C. and Harrisburg, PA, until PRR’s merger with New York Central in 1968, becoming Penn Central. By then, starting in 1955, the GG-1 fleet sported a single gold stripe replacing the five stripe design. Then came Amtrak in 1971 to replace the failed Penn Central, and the GG-1s were repainted once again. By that time, though, the “Broadway Limited” was a mere shadow of its former self; hardly a first class train anymore. GG-1s continued in dependable service for Amtrak after 1971, until their retirement by 1983, replaced by Amtrak’s AEM-7 B+B (7000 horsepower) electric locomotives, introduced in 1979 (see No. 10107).
 
No. 10078 represents a fine example of the original five-stripe GG-1 in Tuscan red, pulling a matching six-car streamlined train (Nos. 10079 and 10080), simulating the “Broadway Limited” as it would have been seen in the 1950s on the electrified segments of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The train is modeled in “0" gauge by MTH.  This model train represents a postwar example of the “Fleet of Modernism” “Broadway Limited,” with its 1952 repainted GG-1 and displaying the new fleet of lightweight cars delivered in 1948-50, in a single shade of Tuscan red with gold striping and lettering designed by Loewy.
 
As a footnote, the “Broadway Limited,” New York-Chicago service was established over the 908 miles in November, 1912, on a 20-hour schedule, to be competitive with New York Central’s prestige train, the “20th Century Limited,” established in 1902 (see No. 10073 and 10156). Although the  Tuscan red “Broadway Limited” never attained the fame or popularity of the “20th Century Limited,” it did keep pace by offering everything expected of a luxury train, including a ladies’ maid, manicurist, barber, and secretary for busy executives. Dining car tables were set with china and silver and stewards wore dinner jackets. The menus were varied and the chefs skilled.
 
Industrial designer Raymond Loewy oversaw the streamlining of the “Broadway Limited” in 1938. The new two-tone Tuscan red and maroon lightweight streamlined cars were pulled by stylish Loewy-designed Brunswick green GG-1 electric locomotives under catenary from New York to Harrisburg, and then by faithful K-4 “Pacific”-type steam locomotives (see No.  10113) or the revolutionary steam turbine locomotive S-2 (see No. 10124) west of Harrisburg to Chicago. Like the new Henry Dreyfuss designed “20th Century  Limited,” the “Broadway Limited” was an all-Pullman all-private-room train, part of Pennsylvania’s new “Fleet of Modernism,” operating on a fast 16-hour schedule between New York and Chicago.
 
In the end the “Broadway Limited” outlasted its worthy rival - both trains made their last all-Pullman runs in 1967, and when Amtrak took over in 1971, it was the  “Broadway Limited” name and route that survived, but back to a leisurely 20-hour schedule, about the same as the 1912 train. The Amtrak “Broadway Limited” was a coach-and-sleeper operation, downgraded from the pre-1967 all-Pullman consist. Amtrak discontinued “Broadway Limited” service in 1995.