The

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name 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. It was named ...

's class L6 comprised three

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 or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

s of

2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheel ...

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

in the

Whyte notation Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth ce ...

. The intention was to build a whole class of freight boxcab locomotives using this design, but the displacement of class P5a to freight work after the introduction of the

GG1 The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 10 ...

meant that there was little need for more electric freight locomotives. Two L6 class locomotives were built at

Altoona Works Altoona Works (also known as Altoona Terminal) is a large railroad industrial complex in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It was built between 1850 and 1925 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), to supply the railroad with locomotives, railroad cars and relat ...

as prototypes in 1932. Numbered 7825–7826, they were renumbered 5938–5939 in 1933. Sixty production L6a locomotives were planned, with the car bodies of thirty subcontracted to

Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shop's location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between ...

(order number 1128, construction numbers 7587–7616). One was completed as PRR 5940, while the other 29 car bodies remained in store at Altoona until scrapped in 1942 for the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

effort. The 5939 and 5940 were renumbered 4790 and 4791 in 1966, with the 5938 scrapped the same year. The last two were scrapped in 1967.

References

*
Train Misc
''NE Rails''
PRR Chronology 1937

PRR Chronology 1968
* {{PRR locomotives Lima locomotives L6 11 kV AC locomotives Electric locomotives of the United States 1-D-1 locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Freight locomotives