Jump to content

Pennsylvania Railroad class G5

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RRJS3 (talk | contribs) at 06:20, 24 December 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Pennsylvania Railroad G5s was a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the mid-late 1920's. The class was designed primarily for providing power to passenger trains, particularly on commuter lines, and thus became a fixture on suburban railroads, most notably the Long Island Railroad, until the mid 1950's. The G5s was the largest and strongest class of 4-6-0 locomotives ever built in the United States.[1]

Production

The Baldwin Locomotive Works built 90 G5s locomotives for the PRR between 1923 and 1925. An additional 31 examples were built between 1924 and 1929 for the Long Island Railroad, which was a PRR subsidiary at the time.[2]

Service on the Pennsylvania Railroad

The G5s was designed for rapid acceleration and the ability to make frequent stops, which made it optimal for service on commuter railroads. The 90 G5s locomotives that were owned by the PRR were therefore used on lines that linked cities to suburban areas. There was a large concentration of G5s's in the Pittsburgh area, but the class was also prevalent in New Jersey, and the areas surrounding Chicago and Fort Wayne.[3]

Service on Long Island

The G5s acted as the primary passenger locomotive on the Long Island Railroad until the end of steam in October 1955, sharing the duty with K4s's leased from the PRR, as well as diesels such as the Alco RS3 that ultimately replaced them. The G5s locomotives that operated on Long Island differed slightly from those produced for the PRR, in that a larger tender was required due to the distances between coaling stations.[4]

Preservation

The G5s is one of the best preserved classes of Pennsy steam locomotives, with three surviving examples.

PRR 5741 - On permanent static display in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.[5]

LIRR 35 - Owned by the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum in Oyster Bay, NY. The museum is working to secure funding for the restoration of the locomotive, which is currently dismantled.[6]

LIRR 39 - Owned by the Railroad Museum of Long Island, based in Riverhead, NY. The boiler is currently in the process of restoration at Strasburg, PA, while the rest of the locomotive remains in Riverhead. The restoration includes a conversion to oil firing.[7]

  1. ^ http://www.byz.org/~morven/Railway32/steam/index.html
  2. ^ http://prrsteam.pennsyrr.com/prrg5.php
  3. ^ http://prrsteam.pennsyrr.com/prrg5.php
  4. ^ http://www.byz.org/~morven/Railway32/steam/index.html
  5. ^ http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/about/roster/index.shtml
  6. ^ http://www.oysterbayrailroadmuseum.org/aboutus/engine35.html
  7. ^ http://www.rmli.us/RMLI/Engine_39.html
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_G5&oldid=333750885"