In 1980, Conrail sent a funeral train of 15 to 20 GG1's west on the Fort Wayne line (Pennsy main) all the way across Indiana before realizing their mistake and stopping it at Colehour yard in Indiana and returning it back east to be scrapped, making this the only time that GG1's ran thru Ft. Wayne Indiana, even if they were DIT.
Sources: Pennsywest yahoogroup members Norm Bell and Ken(no last name listed) who lived in Valporaiso at the time and saw it first hand. Not sure of the year, but it was mentioned in Trains magazine as well.
In the July 1979 issue of "Rails Northeast" is an article about the "Route of the G's", by J.W. Jack (the same Joe Jack?) which tells in detail what happened to this group of 12 GG1's. They were consigned to Pielet Bros. scrapyard in Chicago, Ill. They left Wilmington, Del. on 4-20-79, and were routed across the PRR mainline to Pittsburgh, then the Panhandle to Chicago, where they were turned back and run the Fort Wayne line back towards Youngstown, ending up at Hubbard, Ohio-Midwest Steel scrap instead. Consist was CR 2365/2667 Westbound, CR 6427/2667/2365 Eastbound. GG1's were 4815, 4862, 4854, 4868, 4898, 4861, 4803, 4858, 4870, 4825, 4838, 4821. Caboose CR 24038.
The mis-routed GG1s at Kent, OH - Roger Durfee photo. More »
