From: rcp27@nospam.ac.uk   
      
   On 2015-03-21 01:00:17 +0000, peterwezeman@hotmail.com said:   
      
   > I came across pictures of these locomotives, which were used to take   
   > passenger trains in and out of the Cleveland Union Terminal when local   
   > ordinance did not allow steaming within the city limits:   
   >   
   > http://morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN10359   
   >   
   > After the war, when diesels replaced steam locomotives, they were no   
   > longer needed in Cleveland. The New York Central then had them modified   
   > to run off its third rail system and used them to pull trains in and   
   > out of Grand Central Station.   
   >   
   > I find it interesting that the locomotive's superstructure is so much   
   > shorter than the undercarriage, about two-thirds the length. I would be   
   > interested in any information about why they were designed like this.   
      
   An interesting photograph, thanks for posting.   
      
   Electric locomotives of that era were heavy but not bulky.  This meant   
   that while they required lots of axles to support the weight, there   
   wasn't that much actual volume required to be filled with it.  A lot of   
   electric locomotives of the 1920s and 1930s had relatively short bodies   
   on much longer frames.  The "Crocodile" pattern is something of a   
   classic (google for Ce 6/8).  The GG1, under its elegant streamlined   
   body, is in many ways similar.  With improvements in technology   
   post-war weights went down, so the number of axles was reduced   
   significantly, leading to much more compact machines.   
      
   Robin   
      
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