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User:DanTD/Sandbox/Electrification of the Pennsylvania Railroad

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Main articles: Pennsylvania Railroad and Railroad electrification in the United States

The Pennsylvania Railroad carried out many electrification projects. Though not an originator of electrification, it was significantly used in competition with New York Central Railroad, especially after the Park Avenue Tunnel disaster of 1902.

Power plant for New York

The nucleus of the main improvement was the 1915 electrification between Philadelphia and Paoli, Pennsylvania. That was extended south to Wilmington in 1928 and began working north to Trenton. PRR decided to change the New York terminal third-rail electrification to high-voltage 11,000-volt 25-Hertz alternating current (AC) to match the Philadelphia electrification and connect the two; that was completed in 1933, putting the New York-Wilmington line under wires. At the same time the railroad opened two new stations in Philadelphia: 30th Street Station and Suburban Station next to Broad Street Station. Two years later the electrification was extended to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia. Electrification was extended west from Paoli to Harrisburg in 1938, with the thought of eventually continuing it to Pittsburgh.[1][2]

The biggest single improvement accomplished by the PRR in the 1920s and 1930s was the electrification of its lines from New York to Washington, D.C., and from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. PRR had initially added electric in 1910 via a direct current (DC) 650-volt third rail that powered PRR locomotives and LIRR passenger cars.[3]


Cumberland Valley Branch edit

Main article: Cumberland Valley Railroad

Before being completely acquired by Pennsylvania Railroad in 1919, the 7.7-mile (12.4 km) line between Mechanicsburg and Dillsburg was electrified in 1906 using a 600 V DC system.[4] The electrification was discontinued in 1928.

West Jersey and Seashore Railroad edit

Main article: West Jersey and Seashore Railroad

The PRR, owner of West Jersey & Seashore Railroad (WJ&S), electrified with 600 V DC from Camden, New Jersey to Atlantic City, via Newfield, and to Millville. A third-rail system was used for most of the line except overhead trolley wire was installed between Mickle Street in Camden and Gloucester City as well as a 10-mile (16 km) segment between Newfield and Millville. The Camden-Gloucester City portion was installed due to a decision to use the old Camden Seventh Street line as part of the route. Numerous grade crossings on both this segment and in Gloucester City precluded the use of third rail due to public safety considerations. The Millville branch, however, was equipped with overhead wire as a "method of comparing the durability of trolley wire versus third rail under high-speed open-country operating conditions." The WJ&S ordered 62 coaches and six combination baggage mail units split between Jackson and Sharp Company, and J. G. Brill and Company at Philadelphia, which had 46 cars from the order. Brill sublet work on 22 coaches to its Wason subsidiary in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The electrification was opened in 1906 with cars that resembled wooden interurbans of other electric traction properties. The same year the 1906 Atlantic City train wreck occurred, in which a three-car train of the new equipment derailed and fell into a waterway; 53 people died. Other cars were built in 1909 bringing the fleet total to 80 MP1 and MP2 class wooden MU coaches. The 19 purchased in 1909 had steel instead of wooden ends and featured PRR porthole style windows on each end. There were six MO1 class passenger-baggage combines including two with steel ends, four MBM1 baggage-mail cars and two MB1 baggage-express cars. In 1912, the PRR assigned two MPB54 all-steel combines and 15 all-steel MP54 coaches to WJ&S. WJ&S and the Reading subsidiary Atlantic City Railroad were merged into Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (P-RSL) in 1932.

Electric MU service between Newfield and Atlantic City ended Sept. 26, 1931 so P-RSL only inherited the electrified Millville commuter rail service from WJ&S. On Oct. 20, 1948, New Jersey's public utility regulators ordered P-RSL to remove all remaining 26 wooden MU coaches from service as a safety hazard should they be involved in fire or collision. P-RSL management already was considering replacing the MUs due to an aging power distribution system and obsolete rolling stock. So nearly two-thirds of the MU fleet was removed from service. With only the PRR style all-steel MUs left for passenger service, P-RSL cut back the electrified commuter service to Glassboro in fall 1948 and management then ordered an end to all remaining electrification as of Sept. 8, 1949. On that date a morning commuter run from Glassboro to Camden ended 43 years of electrification. Non-electrified commuter rail service to Glassboro and Millville continued until March 5, 1971.

Hudson & Manhattan Railroad edit

Main article: Port Authority Trans-Hudson § Hudson and Manhattan Railroad years

The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, a rapid transit system, was built between New York, Hoboken and Jersey City, opening in 1908. It was partially owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and designed as an electrified system using 600 V DC third rail. The system was taken over by Port Authority Trans-Hudson in 1962, and still operates today.


New York Terminal edit

Electrification was installed from Sunnyside Yard in Queens, through New York station to Manhattan Transfer station in New Jersey. A 675 V DC third rail (Top Contact) system was used.[5] Electrification was later changed to 11 kV 25 Hz overhead catenary, when the PRR electrified its mainline to Washington, D. C. in the early 1930s.

Long Island Rail Road edit

LIRR powerhouse in Mineola, New York.
Main articles: Long Island Rail Road and History of the Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road's electrification was initiated in the first decade of the 20th century while it was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was building tunnels under the Hudson River and East River to gain access to Manhattan. The first segment of the LIRR to be electrified was the trackage between the Atlantic Avenue terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica Station. Electrification extended east of Jamaica to the Belmont Park station in 1905.[6] In 1910, the opening of Pennsylvania Station (New York City) ushered in electric service between that station and Jamaica. The LIRR's Port Washington Branch was rebuilt and electrified by 1918. By 1934, LIRR branches to Mineola, Hempstead, West Hempstead, Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Babylon were electrified.

The LIRR utilizes third rail electrification, which was the original method used by the PRR. By the 1930s, the PRR had switched to overhead catenary electrification, but the LIRR has continued utilizing its third rail system. Pennsylvania Railroad sold off the Long Island Rail Road in 1949, but the LIRR never terminated their efforts to electrify their system. In 1970, electrification was extended to Hicksville, and to Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch. In 1987, electrification of the Main Line between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma was completed, resulting in greatly increased service. Voltage was increased from 600 V DC to 750 V DC in the early 1970s to meet the greater power needs of the railroad's new M-1 cars. M-1's were retired in 2006, but the same voltage is used for M-3 and M-7 cars to this day, as well as the recent M-9.

Philadelphia, Paoli and West Chester edit

A section of the Chicago-Philadelphia Main Line (now part of Amtrak's Keystone Corridor) was electrified in 1915. The suburban service between the former Broad Street Station in Philadelphia and the village of Paoli. The PRR electrification utilized overhead catenary wires electrified at 11 kV 25 Hz, and was fed by two substations, one in Philadelphia and another in Ardmore. It was expanded in 1918 on the PRR's Chestnut Hill line, as well as on the connecting Fort Washington Branch to White Marsh in 1924, in the 1920s on the Philadelphia-Washington, D.C. main line between Philadelphia and Wilmington, and on the West Chester Line between Philadelphia and West Chester in 1928, with the latter two lines being fed through a single substation located in Chester. The Schuylkill Branch to Norristown was electrified in 1930, although there were plans to electrify the line further west to Phoenixville.

New York - Washington edit

Extensive electrification after 1925 occurred on the PRR's New York-Washington line (now part of the Northeast Corridor), the Chicago-Philadelphia Main Line between Paoli and Harrisburg, several major commuter lines in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and on major low-grade, through-freight lines, including the Trenton Cutoff, the Atglen & Susquehanna, Port Road, Philadelphia & Thorndale, Shellpot, and Enola branches. All electrification done after 1919 used the same catenary supports used on the Paoli commuter line, but with the catenary being supplied with 100 kV 25 Hz "transmission" lines with the voltage stepped-down at substations located every 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km). The PPL-owned Safe Harbor Dam, located near the Exelon-owned Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant between Conowingo, Maryland and York, Pennsylvania, supplies the power for all post-1925 electrical expansion projects, while Exelon supplies the pre-1925 electrification areas through the existing Philadelphia, Ardmore, and Chester substations. Plans were made in the thirties to extend electrification to Pittsburgh, but were not pursued due to the Great Depression.

Since its takeover by Amtrak in 1976, both the Northeast and Keystone Corridors are undergoing extensive wire replacements, either by Amtrak or SEPTA, while the through-freight branches taken over by Conrail have been de-electrified and freight operations carried out by diesel locomotives. Those lines that were de-electrified, but have transmission lines are maintained by Amtrak through arrangements through Conrail's successors, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation.


Freight lines edit

Though primarily intended for use by passenger trains, a $77 million loan from the New Deal's Public Works Administration in 1934[7] allowed the PRR to add wire to freight-only lines, including:

Prior to this, various freight sidings of the Long Island Rail Road were also electrified between 1928 and 1930.[9]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Drury, George H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads: Histories, Figures, and Features of more than 160 Railroads Abandoned or Merged since 1930. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 251–259. ISBN 0-89024-072-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ "The Electrification of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Broad Street Terminal Philadelphia to Paoli." The Electric Journal. Vol. 12, No. 12 (December 1915). (Pittsburgh, PA: The Electric Journal.) pp. 536–541.
  3. ^ "Pennsylvania RR Electrification". Northeast Railfan.net. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  4. ^ Middleton, William D. (2001). When the steam railroads electrified. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33979-0.
  5. ^ Manson, Arthur J. (1923). Railroad Electrification and the Electric Locomotive. New York, NY: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-587167932-6.
  6. ^ "Arrt's Archives". Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  7. ^ "P.R.R. WILL SPEND $77,000,000 AT ONCE; Atterbury Outlines Projects Under PWA Loan Giving Year's Work to 25,000. TO EXTEND ELECTRIC LINE Sees Buying Power Restored and Industry Stimulated by Wide Building Program", The New York Times, January 31, 1934 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  8. ^ "Electrification History to 1948". Pennsylvania Railroad Electrification. www.railsandtrails.com. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  9. ^ Bob Emery’s LIRR Branch Notes (TrainsAreFun)


External links edit

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