100th Anniversary Main Line Electrification to Paoli

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of electrified train service between Philadelphia and Paoli. The line was opened to electrified service September 1915.

It also marks the 20th anniversary since Paoli car shops were closed.

It's amazing most of the catenary and electrical infrastructure is still standing, earning it's keep. Even more amazing, the electrification project was completed in 2 years! Substations, Cat poles, catenary, transmission lines....the whole 9 yards. All while running freight, mail, long distance and commuter trains during construction.

Photo courtesy of Google images

Clearfield wrote:

NorthPennLimited wrote:Wow. That took less than 24 hours to go "Newtown" on a discussion about how the Paoli Local experiment started the standard of overhead AC electric traction commuter train service in America.

I'm done.

That word should be banned from this board!

Not banned, just extremely discouraged and heavily redacted. As in this thread.

What's the deal with the censorship? I made a factual remark how government regulation and politics have stymied growth and restoration of passenger rail service and you deleted it? Would it have been any different if I said West Chester or Cynwyd? Get a grip folks and you Mister moderator.

Since we're congratulating the PRR on 100 years of solid engineering, why is it not fair game to mention how different things are today?

bikentransit wrote:What's the deal with the censorship? I made a factual remark how government regulation and politics have stymied growth and restoration of passenger rail service and you deleted it? Would it have been any different if I said West Chester or Cynwyd? Get a grip folks and you Mister moderator.

It's not censorship, it's moderation. Now its coming with a warning.

Endless horse beating about Newtown is obnoxious, and nothing but a waste of *everyones* time, including this. You took a fairly good post about SEPTA & local history and threw it off topic.

bikentransit wrote:Since we're congratulating the PRR on 100 years of solid engineering, why is it not fair game to mention how different things are today?

I'm fairly certain you went directly into a filibuster, not a congratulation.

Back to your regularly schedule PRR Electrification 100th anniversary thread.

A few more from google image search.
Daylesford Station

Paoli interlocking

Here is an interesting photo from the Radnor Township Historical Society of a derailment from the 1920's. Looking at the photo, it's hard to tell if the derailment pulled down the wire over track 2, or maybe track 2 was not wired in the early 20's. Any resident historians here know the story. The lack of insulators over track 2 lead me to believe it was possibly non-electrified.

construction of Suburban Station

Did the PRR start off with the 12kV 25hz power system we are still using, or did they use overhead DC catenary like the former DL&W lines that terminated at Hoboken terminal?

Still waiting for the experts / historians to weigh in. But this is an interesting topic (to me).

According to " the Internet" (if you read it on the Internet, it has to be true, right?) the power comes from Safe Harbor Dam up in the Susquehanna River. The power comes out at 25Hz. Not sure about 100 years ago. Seems the dam came online nearly 16 years to the day after the PRR electrified the Paoli Line.

This is a tough subject to research online.

Here is what I found on Wiki:

Planning for the construction of the Safe Harbor dam started in 1929 and construction started 1 April 1930. The dam was completed and closed its gates for the first time on 29 September 1931. The first power was generated on 7 December 1931 and the last of the original seven turbine generator units came on-line on 14 October 1940. Expansion of the generation capacity started planning in 1981. Construction started 12 April 1982 and the 5 new turbine generator units came on-line between 13 April 1985 and 12 April 1986. Units 1 and 2 are Kaplan turbines connected to single-phase generators to produce 25 Hz single-phase electric power for railroad use by Amtrak and SEPTA, but also can be connected to a motor-generator to convert any spare 25Hz power to 60 Hz. The rest of the units generate 60 Hz, three-phase, power. Safe Harbor can generate 417.5 megawatts of hydroelectric power.[2] Power from Safe Harbor is dispatched through PJM Interconnection, one of many regional transmission organizations feeding the nations power grids.

NorthPennLimited wrote:... Looking at the photo, it's hard to tell if the derailment pulled down the wire over track 2, or maybe track 2 was not wired in the early 20's.

I think the picture shows the wires over Track 2 being moved aside so the crane can get to work on the derailment.

R3 Passenger wrote:Did the PRR start off with the 12kV 25hz power system....?

They started off with 11,000 volts at 25 cycles. The voltage got jacked up a few decades ago, maybe about the same time that hertz came into common use for cycles-per-second.

Everyone:

This topic should be renamed "100th Anniversary Main Line Electrification to Paoli"
A link should also be posted to the Pennsylvania Railroad forum in the Fallen Flags section...

This was the first significant PRR line to be electrified with overhead catenary using 11KV AC
and would eventually become Philadelphia's busiest commuter rail line with its fleet of MU
cars like the MP54 which would serve until the 1970s...

The PRR over the next 25 years (the end of the 1930s) would electrify to New York Penn Station,
Washington and Harrisburg and other commuter lines - Chestnut Hill (West) would be next
in 1918...

The PRR Electrification has served well over the years for the PRR,PC,Conrail,Amtrak and
SEPTA...Other commuter authorities like NJT and MARC also benefit today...

MACTRAXX

The PRR electrified early, but the RDG waited until sometime in the early 1930's to begin putting wires up. It begs the question, was the Reading behind in the times or were they waiting to see how the PRR's experiment went before doing it themselves?

OLD discussion from 2006 regarding Reading Company electrification. Interesting info, can't find any information on bond issues or costs.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... RIFICATION" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As a side note the PRR took a $77 ML WPA loan in 1936 to finish "freight line" electrification and acquire supportive infrastructure ( additional GG1 locomotives above planned level) for electric operation.