Power type Electric Serial number 28448, 28449 Total produced 2 | Builder GE Erie Works Build date 1947 Configuration 4-8-8-4 | |
The W-1 was a class of electric locomotive built by the Great Northern Railway. They were constructed to haul trains on the 73-mile (117 km) electrified portion of the railroad across the Cascade Mountains from Wenatchee, Washington to Skykomish, Washington, including the Cascade Tunnel. Only two locomotives were built, and they had an AAR B-D+D-B wheel arrangements.
The locomotives were built at General Electric's Erie works in 1947, and were numbered 5018 and 5019. They were powered by a 5,000 horsepower (3.7 MW) W-1 motor-generator, and at that time were the largest single-unit electric locomotives used in North America.
Both locomotives were retired in 1956 when the electrification system was switched off and diesel locomotives started operating. Unit 5019 was scrapped in 1959. Unit 5018 was sold to the Union Pacific, who used its body and running gear as part of an unsuccessful experimental coal burning gas turbine-electric locomotive #80.