800-series

Did the 800's have a class designation, such as GG1 or SD40? Or were they just 800's or Joes? I can't imagine that to be the case.

I haven't heard any other names then the 800's or Little Joes but the GE designation was EF-4 I believe. The Milw RD had a couple different kinds of designations for their passenger and freight models.

800 class or little joe...I never heard it any other way from the SS.

The SS had to revamp them to run on their line. Regauge and de-mu.

I remember hearing CSS rewired for 1500v and removed MU capability, but I thought GE knocked the gauge down to 4'8.5" in Erie. That's got to be one hell of an undertaking, and as good as the guys were in MC, I can't believe they pulled that off.

They had to be regauged at GE, otherwise how would they have gotten to MC Shops in the first place?

Had they been built a century earlier, the joes could have been shipped on Erie to Hegewisch... Erie was built to 5' gauge originally, but probably only within New York. I think it was standardized before 1900 as well.

Here's an interesting thought: Out of the 20 total Little Joes built, GE had built the last six of them to standard gauge when it started becoming apparent that they weren't going to be shipped overseas. One of these final six was numbered GE-750 and sent to the Milwaukee Road for tests. The initial tests weren't very successful, and the locomotive was sent back to GE.

Following that, the South Shore bought its three Joes, and a railroad in Brazil bought five of them. When the Korean war broke out, the Milwaukee saw a surge in traffic and immediately bought the remaining 12 locomotives from GE, most of which had to be re-gauged and de-Russianized.

So, there's a chance that one of the Joes may have operated on both the South Shore and Milwaukee Road during its lifetime. It seems the former would have purchased whichever locomotives were in the best shape, and since the unit used to test on the MILW was already correctly gauged and had recently been used, it would have been a logical pick. I can't find find any definitive roster for the Little Joes, but it seems like it might be possible.

I guess we gotta find GE contruction dates or a GE history book.