ONE OF A KIND TIMES 3
By Bill Meyer
The pictures of the 3 GG-1s are all custom painted (???) and owned by Don Shaw of The Train Station of Mountain Lakes, N.J.; and one of the top 10 Lionel dealers.
No prototype GG-1 has ever been made in any of these paint schemes.
Of the 139 GG-1s built for the once mighty PRR, there are only 13 that have been preserved around the U.S.
Two of these are #4800, the first one built, and #4935. This is the one that Amtrak ran with after it was repainted back to Brunswick Green with cat whiskers and both can be seen at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg, Pa.
Conrail retired its freight fleet in 1979. Amtrak retired these motives in 1981 and NJ Transit ran the last in 1983.
Don Shaw received the cream/gold GG-1 from John King when he purchased his collection. John had told Don that the #4935 was painted by Lionel at the Hillside plant and given to him by an un-named employee.
John also had a custom NJ Transit and black and gold GG-1 to advertise his then electric business. It is believed to have been done by Eliot Welz.
