100th Anniversary Main Line Electrification to Paoli

Jersey_Mike wrote:

NorthPennLimited wrote:Still waiting for the experts / historians to weigh in. But this is an interesting topic (to me).
In 1928 the Lamokin converter plant came online for Wilmington and West Chester service followed by the large Port Richmond plant in 1933, which powered the bulk of the eastern network. Safe Harbor only came online for railroad power in 1938 with the Low Grade and Harrisburg lines were wired. Today the whole system operates like any other power grid except that the Paoli section had the oddball 44Kv feeders removed around 1960 as freight traffic on the Main Line fell. The 20 mile segment is now fed from the ends via the 1938 Paoli Substation and the 1930 Zoo Substation. Bryn Mawr substation has catenary section breakers only and possibly some mechanism to tie the 4-main line catenary lines together so they can act as mutual feeders since the gap between substations is twice as long as it normally is...or at least that is how it was explained to me.

NorthPennLimited wrote: This is a tough subject to research online.

Not if you know where to look.

Substations are an interesting topic to me as well. So much so that I must ask... is "frequency converter station" (as the sign says at the 7th Street entrance to the Lamokin plant per Google Street View; photo taken June 2012) longhand for "substation"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_substation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; seems to answer it (see "Converter substations" therein) but, you know...

And what is inside that big building at the Lamokin plant?

motor

motor wrote: Substations are an interesting topic to me as well. So much so that I must ask... is "frequency converter station" (as the sign says at the 7th Street entrance to the Lamokin plant per Google Street View; photo taken June 2012) longhand for "substation"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_substation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; seems to answer it (see "Converter substations" therein) but, you know...

And what is inside that big building at the Lamokin plant?

It's exactly what it says on the tin, a plant that converts 60Hz mains power to 25Hz railroad power. Inside that building are three 16MW motor-generators.

ExCon90 wrote:The PRR did electrify a line from Camden to Millville, in South Jersey, at 600v DC (using trolley poles), in 1906, partly to evaluate its practicality, but was more impressed by the New Haven's experience with 11kv 25Hz.

The WJ&S / P-RSL electrification actually extended all the way to Atlantic City via Woodbury, Glassboro, Newfield and Mays Landing at one time, using a combination of trolley wire (between Camden and Gloucester due to numerous grade crossings) and third rail. Cars were outfitted with poles and truck mounted pickups. The extended ties for the third rail brackets could still be seen well into the Conrail days. The PRR tested some experimental PRR and NH DC locos on the WJ&S which led to the development of the successful DD-1 design. All electrified service on the P-RSL ended in 1949.

I now return to our regularly scheduled discussion.

What did the PRR do when there was less demand on the catenary power? Slow down the amount of water running through the generator at the dam? Change gears on the rotary converter?

I imagine it worked under the same principle as a gas generator. It keeps spinning at the same RPM, but doesn't have any electrical current output since there is no load or ground.

Is Nasadowski still around? He'd know this one.

catfish wrote:What did the PRR do when there was less demand on the catenary power? Slow down the amount of water running through the generator at the dam? Change gears on the rotary converter?

That would be the power company's problem, but in general less load would increase the rotational speed of the turbine which would feed back into some sort of valve in the penstocks that meters the water flow.

Still searching, but I haven't been able to find any work trains from the teens and 20's that helped string new catenary.

Found some good stuff at TEhistory.org

The Paoli Local: 100 Years Of Electrification On The Pennsylvania Railroad
At 5:55 AM, Saturday, September 11th 1915 the first scheduled electric powered train departed Paoli for Philadelphia marking the beginning of one of the most famous railroad electrification projects in the United States.
http://michaelfroio.com/blog/2015/8/25/ ... rification

Soon after the New York terminal project was completed, engineering forces turned their attention to a major traffic bottleneck in the PRR’s corporate home of Philadelphia. Broad Street Station, built by the Wilson Brothers in 1881 and expanded by Frank Furness in 1892-93 was a 16-track stub ended terminal that was situated in the city center directly across from city hall. Broad Street saw a host of trains including commuter and long distance trains that stopped, terminated or originated here; because of the nature of a stub end terminal and a lengthily and congested reverse move to the engine facilities west of the Schuylkill River, trains faced a host of delays limiting Broad Street’s capacity and efficiency. In order to ease congestion the PRR turned to engineering consultant Gibbs & Hill to develop a solution utilizing electric traction, but this time with AC propulsion. Now several years into the New Haven’s electrification the PRR could capitalize on their triumphs while incorporating technological advances to perfect the new installation.