The Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

's class R1 comprised a single prototype electric locomotive

Electric locomotive

An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...

 constructed in 1934 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works

Baldwin Locomotive Works

The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of...

 of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, USA, with the electrical equipment by Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric (1886)

Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...

.

It was built as a competitor to the GG1

PRR GG1

The PRR GG1 is a class of electric locomotives that was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad for use in the northeastern United States. A total of 140 GG1s were constructed by its designer General Electric and the Pennsylvania's Altoona Works from 1934 to 1943....

 design, but after trials the GG1 was selected for volume production on the basis of its superior tracking and riding qualities; the R1 prototype, however, remained in service. It was numbered 4800 originally, swapped numbers with the victorious GG1 prototype to #4899, but was moved in May 1940 to #4999 to make room for the expanding GG1 fleet.

For many years, the R1's regular duties involved hauling the westbound Broadway Limited

Broadway Limited

The Broadway Limited was the Pennsylvania Railroad's premier named passenger train, operating daily in each direction between New York City and Chicago, via North Philadelphia. It replaced its predecessors, the Pennsylvania Limited and the Pennsylvania Special...

 and returning eastward with a mail and express train. The long rigid wheelbase of the locomotive caused occasional derailments in Sunnyside Yard

Sunnyside Yard

Sunnyside Yard is a large coach yard, a railroad yard for passenger cars, in Sunnyside, Queens in New York City.-Description:The yard is owned by Amtrak and is also used by New Jersey Transit. The shared tracks of the Long Island Rail Road Main Line and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor pass along the...

 and elsewhere. The R1 was withdrawn from service and sent for scrap in 1958.

The R1 design had four driven axles in a rigid locomotive frame

Locomotive frame

A locomotive frame is the structure that forms the backbone of the railway locomotive, giving it strength and supporting the superstructure elements such as a cab, boiler or bodywork. The vast majority of locomotives have had a frame structure of some kind...

, like a steam locomotive. Each was driven by two 625 hp traction motor

Traction motor

Traction motor refers to an electric motor providing the primary rotational torque of a machine, usually for conversion into linear motion ....

s driving the wheels through a quill drive

Quill drive

A quill drive is a mechanism that allows a drive shaft to shift its position relative to its driving shaft. It consists of a hollow driving shaft with a driven shaft inside it...

 and sprung cups. Each end of the double-ended locomotive has a four-wheel truck to guide the locomotive at speed, giving the R1 a 4-8-4

4-8-4

Under the Whyte notation classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles .Other equivalent classifications are:UIC classification: 2D2...

 wheel arrangement

Wheel arrangement

In rail transport, a wheel arrangement is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed beneath a locomotive.. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and connections, with the adopted notations varying by country...

 in the Whyte notation

Whyte notation

The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal...

 (AAR

AAR wheel arrangement

The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. It is essentially a simplification of the European UIC classification, and it is widely used in North America to describe diesel and electric...

: 2-D-2; UIC

UIC classification

The UIC classification of locomotive axle arrangements describes the wheel arrangement of locomotives, multiple units and trams. It is set out in the International Union of Railways "Leaflet 650 - Standard designation of axle arrangement on locomotives and multiple-unit sets". It is used in much...

: 2'Do'2). In many respects the design resembled the earlier, lighter P5

PRR P5

The Pennsylvania Railroad's class P5 comprised 92 mixed-traffic electric locomotives constructed 1931–1935 by the PRR, Westinghouse and General Electric....

, but with an extra driving axle and lower axle loads.