Aster and LGB #24832 + #23832 GG 1

In 2004 the Aster and LGB cooperation continued with the absolutely wonderful GG 1. Although a standard gauge loco for the otherwise narrow gauge oriented LGB Aster built a beautiful brass model charming the American LGB customer with this historic engine:

Aster LGB 24832 - Courtesy Only Trains (historic)

She came in the wooden box, with Styrofoam box and brochures. The wooden box carried the metal plate with the loco type(GG 1) and the individual loco number:

# 24832 in box - courtesy of worthpoint.com

Edition volume was low with 250 engines in the PRR red-brown colors. And the main market was the American customer. Price wise the loco was probably advertised/announced at/around US$ 5,000.00. It was one BIG engine. And the first non-steam engine for Aster to build. But Aster was used to small edition volumes and got a little break by reusing tools and 'molds' for the sister engines # 23832, 23835 and 24835 (see future blogs).

Advertising was actually existing for this loco namely in the LGBoA brochure "LGB INFO 2004" and in the "2004 eXtra" brochure. As can be seen in the above photo image, LGB advertised both GG 1 types in the same manual even though the greenish GG 1 PRR LGB # 23832 was scheduled to be presented to the market about a year later. Hindsight, it is not clear when both engines actually hit the American market/ customer. They might very well have been out for delivery at about the same time, in the end.

LGB 23832 - Courtesy of ebay.com/https://www.ebay.com/c/899817954

Edition volume here was also 250. The # 23832 above is at the time of writing (May 07 2020) available on ebay from England for US$ 3,656.00 plus ship. It is hard to tell if that is a good price since there is no way of telling what the condition of the loco is and how it will be shipped. Aster/LGB all brass locos, all hand made (more or less) are by design tough to ship and to arrive in top shape. But there are also some very good shippers out there.

The archetype is the PRR GG 1, a class of electric locomotives built by General Electric and Altoona Works for the PRR in the mid 1930's. All in all 139 GG 1 were built between 1934 and 1943. By the end of the 1980's all were scrapped but 16 are in museums.

GG 1 4868 pulls The Congressional - Courtesy of  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_GG1

Their then new design and electrical power drive made them fast with speeds of up to 100 mph.
Fun fact 1: "In operation the leading pantograph was usually kept lowered and the trailing raised to collect current, since if the rear pantograph failed it would not strike the forward pantograph" (quote fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_GG1) That was smart engineering. And often, in advertising the model loco, you will see one pantograph erected while the other is lowered.
The archetype for the # 24832, the "4877" was restored to its 1930's paint scheme with stripes and is now on display at the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey

GG 1 4877  - Courtesy of 'Collection of Thomas C Avers"

The Aster/LGB # 23832 archetype No.  4935 is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg/PA

GG 1 No 4935 - Courtesy of https://rrmuseumpa.org/collections/roster/

Fun Fact 2: The crews of the No 4935 nicknamed her "Blackjack" since the sum of 4935 result in "21".

Much beloved until today the GG 1 not only made a number of appearances in modern pop culture, movies and lately video games - it also made history in her own era: (quoted from  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_GG1--edited for easy reading)

On January 15, 1953, train 173, the overnight Federal from Boston, was approaching Washington behind GG1 4876. The train passed a signal 2.1 miles (3.4 km) north of Union Station between 60 and 70 miles per hour ..., and the engineer decreased the throttle and started applying the brakes.When the engineer realized that the train was not slowing down, and applying the emergency brake had no effect, he sounded the engine's horn. A signalman, hearing the horn and noting the speed of the 4876, phoned ahead to the station master's office. 4876 negotiated several switches without derailing, at speeds well over the safe speed limits and entered the station at around 35 to 40 miles per hour. The train demolished the bumping post, continued through the station master's office and into the concourse where it fell through the floor into the station's basement. Thanks to the evacuation of the concourse, there were no fatalities in the station, or aboard the train. A temporary floor was erected over the engine, and the hole it created, for the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 4876 was eventually dismantled, removed from the basement and reassembled in Altoona. It survives in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++ to be continued...................................