Electrification in the North East

Was thinking about this last night while bored to death at work on the midnight shift. Where is there catenary electrificatin in the northeast besides the the NEC from Boston to DC and the lines throughout the NJT system? Do any go west thru PA?

Only reason I ask is if there is catenary in PA to a certain point, would it be cost effective or just a plain good idea to try something like the acela service to lets say pittsburgh or further west if it was possible?

The Amtrak-owned Keystone Corridor between Harrisburg and Philadelphia is electrified. Amtrak actually rehabbed the electric power on that line a couple years back and started officially running electric engines on the entire Keystone Service in late October 2006. (Unofficially they started phasing in electric-powered trains on that corridor a few months before that.) That catenary was originally installed in the PRR days, much like it was on NYC-DC segment of the Northeast Corridor.

Most (all?) of SEPTA's regional rail lines are electrified. Significant portions of the LIRR and Metro-North systems are to my knowledge electrified. FWIW, the South Shore Line (Chicago-South Bend) is also electrified, though I believe I read on railroad.net previously that line does not have overhead catenary or has a different voltage than standard electric catenary. I don't know for sure if that's correct.

Incidentally, portions of the NJ Transit commuter rail system, like the Raritan Valley Line, (I think) the Morris & Essex Gladstone Branch, and the western-most portion of the M&E Morristown Line (west of Dover), do not have electric power.

Regarding the original question, I don't think there is a need for Acela Service on the Keystone Corridor at this point. The only stations that would need it are Harrisburg, Lancaster, and 30th Street Station. Those are also the only stations that currently have at least one high platform. The time savings between an Acela and a standard Keystone wouldn't be that much. Finally, even if the ex-PRR mainline were electrified to Pittsburgh or all the way to Chicago from Philadelphia, the population along most of that corridor wouldn't justify Acela service IMO. Some of the terrain in Pennsylvania (like the famous Horseshoe Curve near Altoona) would also not be conducive to Acela service.

CHIP72 wrote:FWIW, the South Shore Line (Chicago-South Bend) is also electrified, though I believe I read on railroad.net previously that line does not have overhead catenary or has a different voltage than standard electric catenary. I don't know for sure if that's correct.

While AC propulsion is used to power both the Keystone and Northeast corridors, South Shore trains are in fact powered by 1500V DC overhead catenary...

doepack wrote:South Shore trains are in fact powered by 1500V DC overhead catenary...

which is also used by Chicago's Metra Electric trains, which share tracks with the South Shore Line between Kensington and downtown Chicago (Randolph Street station).

South Shore

Metra Electric

IIRC, the South Shore's original electrification was 6kV AC. They changed it to conform to the IC standard so that their trains could get to Randolph Street.

It's not merely "portions" of NJT that are not electrified; it's the majority of the system. Montclair-Boonton between Great Notch and Denville plus between Dover and Hackettstown, Main-Bergen, Pascack Valley, Raritan Valley, North Jersey Coast Line between Long Branch and Bay Head, and the Atlantic City Line. (The Gladstone Branch is fully electric. The Hoboken Division electrification was originally 3kV DC; converted to, as stated, 25kV 60Hz AC in the early 1980s, but per anecdote is actually approximately 27.5kV.) On the light rail side of NJT, two out of three systems are electrified with 750 volts DC overhead catenary wire; the "River Line" is diesel-electric.

As for Acela trains to Pittsburgh, unless you can get speeds of over 125 mph over a significant portion of the line, you may as well stay with conventional Amfleets/AEM-7s. Furthermore, given that Pittsburgh Penn Station's platforms are on a tight curve, it'd be impractical to build the high platforms that Acela would require. Extending the 110-plus mph service west of Harrisburg is a worthy idea, although it is possible to travel that fast using Amtrak's current diesel locomotives; electrifying to Pittsburgh would save engine changes, diesel fuel and acceleration/deceleration time, but you'd need to upgrade signals or else you'll be restricted to 79 mph per the FRA.

Cantary masts still stand along the NS Port River line. Although the wire has been removed, the masts still support transmission of power. I imagine if they ever wanted to, restringing the wire could be done.

There are also masts between the Potomac River and Union Station.

where is the ns port river line, patomic and union station?

Norfolk Southern Port River Line runs from Port Deposit MD to Harrisburg PA I think for a time paralleling the Susq River.

Apparently at one time Amtrak did run a train along this route but it was discontinued.

Traveling south from Washington DC (you'll remember from your FL Trip) you go through the Capital Tunnel. Once you exit, you should notice cantary masts for about 3-5 miles until you cross a river. That is the Potomac River. The wire extended at one point to Potomac Yard (if you noticed a large field with a shopping center on the right going south about 10 minutes before Alexandria station.

The NS Port River Branch = NS Port Road Branch.

Just clarifying a small mistake.

Just another piece of information, Cleveland used have electrification between West 30th street and East 37th Street to access Terminal Tower between 1929 (when the station openned) and sometime in the '50s.

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/SpecColl ... k/cut.html

You can still see the support poles when riding the Red Line line in Cleveland.

While researching this, I also found out that the Detroit Windsor TUnnel was electrified until sometime in the '50.

All of SEPTA is electrified to the PRR-Reading standard. Metro-North and LIRR are partially electrified, but with 750v DC third rail. NJT's North Jersey Coast Line is electrified to the PRR standard from the junction with the NEC until Matawan and 25kv 60hz AC from there until Long Branch. NJT's Montclair-Boonton line is electrified with 25kv 60hz up to Great Notch Yard, NJT's Morristown Line is electrified to the same standard up to Dover, as is the entirety of its Gladstone Branch.

Long long ago, the B&O electrified their Howard St Tunnel in Baltimore due to problems with steam engine exhaust.

Part of the Northern Central had to have been electrified since their are PRR style masts running up from the NEC to the the MTA Light Rail and for about half a mile on the Light rail line between North Ave and Woodberry and you can tell they aren't used anymore because the MTA uses different masts.

Everyone: Let me chime in on this topic to mention that the LIRR is electrified to East Williston, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon and virtually all points west of the stations named here. The LIRR uses top contact third rail. Metro-North uses under-running bottom-contact third rail to Croton-Harmon, Southeast (fka "Brewster North") and Pelham, the changeover point for the overhead AC power on the New Haven line.

We have an interesting study here at NRHS done on behalf of Conrail by the Gibbs and Hill consulting firm, along with Peat, Marwick and Mitchell and T.K. Dyer concerning the future electrification of the former PRR mainline from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh and Conway Yard dated November 1979. It is in-depth and provides a lot of information, but we all know what Conrail ended up doing instead, ending all electric freight operations by 1982. Electrification was to be implemented in an energy-short or expensive environment—we all know that did not happen. I feel that an electrified HAR-PGH Main line would had been quite interesting!

MACTRAXX

gprimr1 wrote:Long long ago, the B&O electrified their Howard St Tunnel in Baltimore due to problems with steam engine exhaust.

The Howard Street Tunnel Electrification is generally credited with being the first US mainline railroad electrification.

gt7348b wrote:Just another piece of information, Cleveland used have electrification between West 30th street and East 37th Street to access Terminal Tower between 1929 (when the station openned) and sometime in the '50s.

http://www.clevelandmemory.org/SpecColl ... k/cut.html

You can still see the support poles when riding the Red Line line in Cleveland.

Actually, Cleveland's CUT electrification extended from (northeast) Colinwood (to the Colinwood Yards near E. 152nd), to the East, and (southwest) to Lindale near W. 130th... It's interesting the Van Sweringens used totally diff electric supply and systems btw the RR electrification and the Shaker Rapid, which (RTA Red, Blue & Green lines) still uses a few of those old heavy RR catenary towers for their contemporary catenary system.