Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

class E2b comprised six experimental B-B

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s built for the railroad by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

. In 1952 the Pennsylvania Railroad took delivery of eight experimental locomotives: * 4 locomotives of the class E2b with the road numbers #4939–#4942 built by General Electric * 2 locomotives of the class E2c with the road numbers #4995 and #4996 built by

Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Eddystone in the early 20th century. The com ...

& Westinghouse * 2 locomotives of the class E3b the road numbers #4997 and #4998 built by

& Westinghouse GE built two demonstrators to show the

Great Northern Railway Great Northern Railway or Great Northern Railroad may refer to: Australia * Great Northern Railway (Queensland) in Australia * Great Northern Rail Services in Victoria, Australia *Central Australia Railway was known as the great Northern Railway ...

. These two were sold to the PRR in March 1953 and numbered . The class E2b locomotives were commonly used in three pairs. Like most previous PRR electric locomotives, they were straight AC-powered, and did not use

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The process is known as ''rectification'', since it "straightens" t ...

s. Because of this, they could work in multiple with existing PRR locomotives, and generally did so with class P5a. The locomotives were

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

ped in 1964.

Notes

References

* * * 11 kV AC locomotives E2b General Electric locomotives B-B locomotives Experimental locomotives Electric locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1952 Scrapped locomotives {{US-train-stub Streamlined electric locomotives