The Pennsylvania Railroad’s class FF1 was built in 1917 to haul freight trains across the Allegheny Mountains where the PRR planned to electrify. The prototype had been numbered as #3931 with a nickname “Big Liz”.

The FF1 features 1-C+C-1 wheel arrangement in two half-frames, connected in the center. Each frame had a pair of three phase AC induction motors. Three phase power for the 4 massive motors was supplied from the single phase overhead supply via a large rotary converter housed in the body of the locomotive. Combined rated output of the motors was 7,640 hp (5,700 kW), but the converter could only supply a short term 4,600 hp (3,400 kW) or a continuous 4,000 hp (3,000 kW). With three-phase induction motors, it is impossible to control the speed of the motors. The only solution is —changing the wiring of the motor poles that allows two speed settings, 10.3 and 20.6 mph (16.6 and 33.2 km/h), which were adequate speed for heavy freight trains running in mountain areas.

It had been designed to use as an Allegheny Mountains climber but builder never realized that its power was too much for the rolling stock at the time, it regularly snapped rolling stock’s couplers, and when it moved to the rear as a pusher its force could squeeze cars in the middle of the train and cause derailment. As result, the FF1 was sidelined until being scraped in 1940.

Eisenbahn Canada proudly present this legendary prototype. History, innovation, quality and craftsmanship, rarity, value, passion, and legacy are the fundamental values of the builder of Eisenbahn Canada collections.